Page 26: of Marine News Magazine (March 2026)

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Maritime Voices

Capt. Paul C. LaMarre III third-generation Great Lakes mariner, based on the number of vessel calls per season,” but the

LaMarre’s earliest memories aren’t an- broader story is less about a single metric and more about chored to theme parks or campgrounds, changing the port’s trajectory.

but to the working waterfront: freight- “I looked at the Port Monroe as a big train set,” he ers and tugboats, the unmistakable said, pointing to the realities of multimodal logistics and

A mix of sights, sounds and smells that stakeholder alignment — and to the practical question de? ne the Lakes. His father spent 51 years with one of that matters at any port: how do you improve infrastruc- the main tugboat companies on the Great Lakes, is en- ture and get the system working as one integrated trans- shrined in the Great Lakes Maritime Hall of Fame, and is portation unit?

also known as a Great Lakes marine artist and company The port’s business model, he says, has been deliber- founder in the region’s shipping community. ately maritime-? rst. “We operate the Port of Monroe as

That granite foundation — history, identity, and the a non-for-pro? t,” LaMarre explained, contrasting the ap- lived reality of maritime commerce — is what LaMarre proach with ports that morph into “pseudo private eco- points to as the “foundation for everything else.” And nomic and real estate development machines.” it’s a theme he returns to again and again: an industry Monroe’s focus, he says, is “strictly on maritime devel- can’t chart its future without understanding the forces oping cargo to move people and vessels through the sys- that built it. tem,” with the goal of generating local tax revenue that

LaMarre’s own path carries the same blend of tradi- ultimately “bolsters the quality of life” in Monroe and the tion and reinvention. A graduate of California Maritime surrounding region.

Academy, he served as a naval aviator ? ying off the West The proof, he argues, is visible during moments of

Coast before returning to the Great Lakes after a cancer stress — like the pandemic.

diagnosis at a young age. In 2020, while much of the world struggled to main-

Back on freshwater, he joined the Toledo-Lucas Coun- tain normal operations, Monroe recorded its busiest sea- ty Port Authority, where he served during a period that son on record. LaMarre pointed to a speci? c project cargo would help shape how he thinks about ports, mission, run that handled 14 consecutive vessels — a sequence he and community impact: his work helping found the Na- described as producing roughly $14 million in regional tional Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo. economic impact from that cargo stream alone.

From there, LaMarre took on what he describes as a The transformation has also been personal. LaMarre “blank canvas” — a port with potential that had “spanned jokes that his wife describes the port’s earlier state as “a decades,” but which needed a purpose-driven push to be- pile of dirt.” Today, he says it is “seen as the most im- come what it could be. pactful regional economic driver” not only in the City of

That port was Monroe. Monroe but across Monroe County and beyond.

The Port of Monroe: AGLPA:

From “Pile of Dirt” to Regional Driver Treating the Great Lakes as “One Port”

LaMarre arrived at the Port of Monroe in 2012 — into While Monroe’s story is a case study in reinvention, a port that, as he puts it, hadn’t had a port director since LaMarre’s broader platform as President of the American 1978. “The port had essentially sat dormant,” he said, Great Lakes Ports Association (AGLPA) is about some- de? ned more by possibility than by cargo volumes and thing even larger: positioning the Great Lakes–St. Law- economic performance. rence Seaway system as a national economic advantage.

Today, he says the Port of Monroe carries an annual AGLPA represents 15 public ports throughout the regional economic impact of roughly $85 million, tied to Great Lakes system, while also strengthening relation- 520 direct jobs. The ? gure, he notes, can “ebb and ? ow ships with private terminal operators, vessel operators 26 | MN March 2026