The Working Harbor Committee of New York and New Jersey (WHC) will honor Captain James DeSimone at its 14th annual Gala Award Reception on Tuesday, May 14, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Downtown Association, 60 Pine Street, New York. Captain DeSimone is deputy commissioner in the New York City Department of Transportation and Chief Operating Officer for the Staten Island Ferry. Click here for more information and for tickets.
Prior to joining NYCDOT, Captain DeSimone served as Vice President of Operations for the Brooklyn-based New York Water Taxi, overseeing all aspects of the marine operations for that company. Prior to that, from 1996 to 2003, Mr. DeSimone was Senior Vice President of Operations with the Cleveland-based Great Lakes Group, where he was responsible for the overall marine operation of a 51-vessel fleet providing services across the Great Lakes, in Florida, the Caribbean and in the Hawaiian Islands.
From 1987 to 1996, Captain DeSimone was Commandant of Cadets and Master of the Training Ship at our nation’s oldest maritime institution, the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, where he was responsible for all college activities external to academic affairs and the operation of the college training ship. Prior to that, from 1973 to 1987, Mr. DeSimone was employed with various steamship companies in all shipboard capacities from Able Seaman up to, and including, Master. During that time, he also served as port captain and cargo surveyor for various ship and cargo owners.
The WHC is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen awareness of the working harbor’s history and vitality today, and its opportunities for the future by involving people in learning how the harbor works and what it does, educating people in the rich and challenging history of the harbor, and making people aware of the need to build and sustain the working harbor. Its Hidden Harbor tours and annual tugboat race competition (held on the Hudson River during Labor Day weekend) are well known. Not so well known, but of vital importance, is WHC’s work with high school students, pointing them toward maritime career opportunities.
The Staten Island Ferry was founded in 1905 and is today the nation’s largest passenger ferry carrying over 22 million passengers annually.