board of directors
photo credit ANNA GOODALE
As a nonprofit charitable organization, the Megunticook Rowing Board of Directors are volunteers who are responsible for oversight, policy, and governance of the organization. We are a diverse body of individuals chosen from varied backgrounds and unique skill sets, committed to ensuring the mission of Megunticook Rowing.
JOHN F. ROMAIN, PRESIDENT
John began his rowing career with the Ithaca College Lightweights. During his junior & senior years he and Jerry Dietz coached the fledgling new women’s program to Dad Vail 8’s victory in the 1st year of the event offered at 2k. Moving on to DC, John rowed with the Potomac Lightweights and began sculling. Finally arriving in the Boston area and able to join the Cambridge Boat Club John was recruited to support the Head of the Charles ® Regatta, year 1 picking up trash then 6 years later serving 2 stints as Regatta Director. Since 1992 John has managed the HOCR Start Line, with a lot of help. Other interests & distractions include several years as Scoutmaster of Troop 60 in Sudbury, Mass., the family yurt in Rome on Great Pond and long walks with his ‘Pup Ellie.
ERIC BUCK, vice president
Eric grew up in a community of naturalists and artists. In 1970, having found an inn for sale in St. George, Maine, his parents transplanted the family from the D.C. area. This marked a formative period in his life which included being an innkeeper’s son, teaching with the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, banging nails, and messing about in boats large and small, coastwise and offshore. A subsequent stint in graduate school at UT Austin led to his career as an architect, first in Texas and later in Chicago. It was not until after he moved to Chicago that he discovered the entirely captivating world of rowing, first in sweep boats, then later in sculls. He and his partner Jay (an experienced rower in her own right) to thank for his introduction to skinny boats as she gave him learn-to-row lessons at the Chicago Rowing Foundation for his birthday some 10 years ago.Now having finally returned to Maine, living on the Megunticook River where it’s possible to row out the front door, it is time become more fully engaged with the local rowing community. Eric sees rowing as an all-embracing pursuit worthy of lifelong attention. He is only sorry he came to it so late.
Hugh Brock, TREASURER
Hugh Brock found rowing as an adult living in Philadelphia near Boathouse Row and is still a member of Malta Boat Club there. He rowed his first race in the Malta gig and was hooked, later buying a new FluidDesign single. On moving to Maine in 2020 he found Megunticook Rowing and has been a grateful and passionate participant since. Hugh's main hope for the club is to establish it as a permanent institution at Lake Megunticook by growing its adult membership and its roster of committed supporters.
SARAH KUHN, secretary
Sarah Kuhn became a rower as a senior at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) in 1973. She rowed that year in the Head of the Charles, and was part of an undefeated season including winning the Eastern Sprints. She came back to rowing in her late 40s at Row As One camp for Masters women and spent two seasons as a member of the competitive women’s team at Community Rowing in Boston. Recently retired from the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she was a member of the Merrimack River Rowing Association, she can now fully commit to rowing and has been thrilled to discover Megunticook Rowing. When she’s not on the water, she is working to improve college teaching. A new resident of Lincolnville, she looks forward to engaging with the community in a variety of ways.
BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE
Meredith currier
Meredith found her passion for rowing as a senior at the Taft School in Watertown, CT. When she told her lacrosse coach that she was leaving to join the crew team, her coach said, “Why do you want to go backwards on your butt as fast as you can?” Meredith still finds answers to that question every day. (More on that later.) After high school, she went on to train at a high level athletically, playing Division 1 hockey and winning a national championship with the Princeton University Women’s Rugby Football Club. Though she put rowing on hold to focus on frozen water and scrums during the school year, she always gravitated back to flat water in the off season. Her summers took her to the rivers and rowing clubs in Baltimore MD, New Hope PA, and Portsmouth NH, rowing everything from singles to eights. In Portsmouth, she learned to love open, coastal rowing among fishing boats while she began her career as a traditional wooden boatbuilder.
When Meredith moved to Maine in 2001, there were avid rowers on Megunticook and other crews in Maine, but no program to make it accessible to people in our area. Meredith connected with a handful of other rowers who together founded Megunticook Rowing, and Meredith served as vice president and secretary of the board as well as equipment guru and coach until 2015. During that time, Meredith cleared the Barrett’s cove site and established the basic infrastructure that we still use today.
So, now back to her lacrosse coach’s question. Meredith has found lots of answers. Loons. Sunrise mist on the lake. A perfect set. The thrill of regattas. But most of all, it’s the camaraderie of pulling as hard as you can; giving everything you have with and for your teammates, even when you can’t see the finish line. That is what has brought Meredith back to the board of Megunticook rowing: her respect and gratitude for everyone who has contributed to our organization over the years. It has been incredible and humbling to see what’s happened while she’s been away from MR, and that has given her renewed energy to pick up the oar again for the next power 10.
MEG WEBB
Meg grew up swimming, sailing and canoeing on a lake in the Green Mountains of central Vermont where she developed a love of being in and on the water. Her first introduction to rowing was through her daughter Sophie, who joined Megunticook Rowing in 2016 as a coxswain. Meg’s love of rowing may also be genetic: her grandfather spent countless hours sculling on the Charles when he was at college - her grandmother used to say he left his summa cum laude on the bottom of the river. Meg started rowing regularly in 2020 and would, if she had the time, spend every free moment on the water. She and her husband, Walter Love, practice medicine together in Waldoboro and have two young adult children, Caleb and Sophie. In her free time Meg enjoys hiking, snow shoeing, gardening, and knitting.
Marnie Read
I have recently stepped away from a terrific career in the marine industry as a marketing, public relations, special events and branding executive. I had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s most wonderful boatbuilders including Lyman-Morse, Hinckley, Morris, and others. While at Lyman-Morse, I was the founding regatta organizer of the Camden Classics Cup. I am a tennis player, golfer and skier both both downhill and cross country (pretty good for a girl from Atlanta). I have known about Megunticook Rowing for a while but could never get it to fit into work and tennis. Last summer I decided to mix it up and get on the water to row. After a handful of sessions on the erg I got out on the water and into a quad in the late spring. That was it for me. I am devoted to this sport and organization. My hope is that my professional experience and background plus my enthusiasm will be an asset to the Board and Megunticook Rowing. Marnie lives in Warren with her husband Hank.
Bob Perkins
Bob grew up in the Boston area and fell in love with rowing as a tiny 7th grade cox at Noble and Greenough. Competing as a cox for three years was great (including a win at Quinsigamond), but the bug to actually pull an oar started at the same time... even if the growth spurt didn't! After competing in singles as a senior in H.S. (while still waiting for that growth spurt!), he continued to long for the rowing world whenever he saw flat water anywhere. It took 20 years but then it all happened. Thirty years of obsession! Rowing regularly on Megunticook Lake, being a principal in starting the Maine Rowing Association in 1994, inventing and running the 10 mile Megunticook Mini-Marathon for 15 years (thank you Meredith for picking that up and evolving it) and eventually coaching with Megunticook Rowing. It is just soooo much fun to be on the water in a boat or coaching a boat.
In his less important life, Bob was an attorney in Camden and then at the Maine Attorney General's Office until his retirement in 2016 and has lived in Camden since 1978.
YOUTH BOARD MEMBERS
CONNOR HOWLAND
Connor Howland has lived in Camden his whole life, and is currently a student at Camden Hills Regional High School. Connor was introduced to rowing in 2018, starting on the erg and then moving into the coxswain position with the Juniors program on the water. He advanced to the varsity team as the lead coxswain in 2021, and has gained invaluable experience participating in the program. Connor loves the tight knit mid-coast community, and the camaraderie and drive of the Megunticook Rowing crew. He’s looking forward to continuing his rowing career with the varsity team, and helping build the Megunticook Rowing organization.
Laura Riordan
Laura is a student at Camden Hills and a passionate junior rower. Since starting in 2019, she has found the team to be supportive and consistent in a time of lots of changes. Laura is excited to step into a leadership and organization role on this team, because she has felt what a gift having that is as a rower. Since her first day in a boat, there have been strong, kind leaders Laura looks up to in this program. She is excited to give back to the Megunticook Rowing community. She is dedicated to learning about science and our local environment, and loves spending time outside.