Al Cottone was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1965.  His parents immigrated from Sicily, and his father was a life-long fishermen.  Cottone graduated from Gloucester High School in 1983, and has been fishing out of Gloucester ever since.  

Scope and Content Note

Mr. Albert (Benjie) Spencer retired in 2024 as the Chief Engineer, and Director of Engineering Standards Division, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service within the Office of Planning and Programming for Service Delivery. Mr. Spencer is responsible for implementing policy, providing end-to-end system engineering oversight, assessing risks, and ensuring consistent engineering processes and standards are applied throughout the organization. 

Captain Albert “Skip” Theberge, Jr. was born in 1946 in Coquille, Oregon.  When Skip was three years old, his family moved to Santa Cruz, where he learned to surf and because fascinated with the ocean.  He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a professional degree in geological engineering. Skip also has a master’s degree in management from the Naval Postgraduate School.  In 1969, Theberge was commissioned as an ensign in the ESSA Corps, which soon became NOAA Corps. He retired with the rank of captain in 1995, after nearly 27 years of commissioned service.

Ann Molloy was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1965. Her ancestors all came from Sicily, where they fished.  She graduated from the University of Northern Colorado and began to work for the family business, Neptune's Harvest, a division of Ocean Crest Seafoods, Inc. as a bookkeeper and is now in charge of sales and marketing.  Ann is a big advocate for Gloucester's Working Waterfront.   

Scope and Content Note

Ann Terbush Schaefer was born in San Francisco in 1947. Her family moved to New York, where Ann attended the High School of Music and Art, before moving again to Washington, DC, where she graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. Ann started her college career at Wells College in Aurora, New York. She transferred to George Washington University with a fine arts degree in 1969. She eventually also earned her master’s in public administration from American University in 1983.

Anthony Gross was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1952, and moved to Gloucester as a child. As a teenager, he worked at the Empire Fish Company, where Anthony's father was General Manager. At 18, Anthony began lobstering on a 16-foot skiff and crewed on a local tub trawler. Then, at 20, he began offshore lobster fishing and worked his way up from cook to engineer and first mate. When Anthony turned 22, he served on a tallow tanker, the "Y/O Olive Oyl," that carried tallow from Miami to Honduras and Guatemala.

Captain John Callahan was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944. His family moved to New Jersey, where he attended St. Joseph’s Grammar School and graduated from Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, New Jersey, in 1961. John was the first in his family to attend college. He went to the State University of New York Maritime College and graduated with a degree in marine engineering before earning his law degree from Catholic University in 1971. Captain Callahan started his career as a naval architect/marine engineer for M.

Craig McLean was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1957. His father was a first-generation immigrant from Scotland who served in the US Navy during World War II. His mother was a second-generation daughter of Sicilian immigrants. He grew up along the Passaic River, was a self-described "river rat," became a certified diver, and worked for a boatyard next to his house. At Rutgers College, Craig studied marine biology and zoology and worked on research cruises with NOAA ships. During the summers, he worked in the commercial and retail dive industry.

David Vallee is the Hydrologist-in-Charge of the National Weather Service’s Northeast River Forecast Center. The center provides detailed water resource and life-saving flood forecasting services to National Weather Service Forecast Offices and the hundreds of federal, state and local water resource entities throughout the Northeast and New York. David has worked for the National Weather Service for 30 years, serving in a variety of positions including Senior Service Hydrologist at the Taunton Weather Forecast Office from 1993-2000 and as Science and Operations Officer from 2001-2006.

Mr. Rutkowski retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1985 with 33 years of federal service. He served as Deputy Diving Coordinator. He was founder and director of the NOAA Diving/Hyperbaric Training and Diver Treatment Facility from 1973 to 1985 where hundreds of divers have been treated. He also served as co-director for the NOAA/UHMS three week physicians diving and hyperbaric medical training program for the past 21 years.