Paul LaMarre, Port of Monroe

Capt. Paul C. LaMarre III, is a third generation Great Lakes mariner whose lifelong freshwater legacy and industry advocacy has led to his recognition as a prominent leader across the Great Lakes-St Lawrence Seaway navigation system.

Capt. LaMarre has served as the Port Director of the Port of Monroe, MI since 2012 and is directly responsible for the Port’s rebirth from being a dormant harbor to what is now a regarded as national example of seaport revival and redevelopment.

A graduate of the California Maritime Academy, Capt. LaMarre holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Transportation with minors in logistics and naval science and maintains an unlimited USCG Deck Officers License as a Master of Towing Vessels.

In 2013, Capt. LaMarre was appointed to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) National Freight Advisory Committee by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood where he served as the sole representative of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System and State of Michigan. In 2016, Capt. LaMarre was appointed to the USDOT’s Port Performance Freight statistics working group by Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx where he once again is the sole representative of the Great Lakes port community.

He was also appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder as Chairman of the State’s first Port Authority Advisory Committee which he still chairs for Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He also sits as a maritime advisor to the State of Michigan Commission for Logistics & Supply Chain Collaboration. In 2018, he was appointed to the USDOT’s Marine Transportation System National Advisory Committee (MTSNAC) by Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao and in 2021 was appointed to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Great Lakes Pilotage Advisory Committee (GLPAC) by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Capt. LaMarre is also the President of the American Great Lakes Ports Association, Vice President of the International Shipmasters Toledo Lodge #9, Vice Chairman of the National Museum of the Great Lakes and a Board Member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, Marine Historical Society of Detroit, Great Lakes Seaway Shipping Online Inc. (Boatnerd.com), and the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. He has also served as a Board Member of the Great Lakes Towing Co. and Pro Medica Monroe Regional Hospital.

As a Great Lakes historian, Capt. LaMarre has received the Association of Great Lakes Maritime History’s Annual Award for Historic Preservation and was also named the Marine Historical Society of Detroit’s “Historian of the Year” for his preservation of the S.S. Col James M. Schoonmaker Museum Ship. The vessel is the centerpiece of the National Museum of the Great Lakes which he also conceptualized and developed with the Great Lakes Historical Society.

He has also served as pilot in the United States Navy, having logged the majority of his flight hours in the F/A-18 Hornet.