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 Eugene Lyon, Ph.D.
President
In 1982, Eugene Lyon was one of the founders of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, along with Mel;
his wife, Dolores; their archaeologist, Duncan Mathewson; and the
Fishers' accountant and friend, Rose Chibbaro.
Gene met Mel Fisher in 1960 in Vero Beach when
he was city manager and Mel was still involved with
treasure hunter, Kip Wagner, and working the 1715 wrecks. Mel had an interest in putting all shipwrecks in Florida under one treasure-hunting group and Gene met him in an
attorney's office to talk about this. Gene's wife, Dot, had met Mel before, when he came into her library looking for information. There were the books all the treasure hunters wanted to consult - they knew that historical
information would be the key to their finds - Dot met them all.
In about 1963, the Lyons and the Fishers became founding members of Christ United Methodist Church by the Sea. The church was meeting in a
school at the time. Gene remembers that time, "Dot always said that when the Fishers walked down the aisle of our church, all heads would turn because they were such a strikingly handsome couple - the red
haired woman and the darkly handsome man. Both very tall."
When Gene and Dot went to Spain in 1969, they met with Mel who asked Gene to look for information on the Nuestra Señora de Atocha while he
was doing his research in the Archives of the Indies in Seville.
By then Mel had moved to the middle Keys, where he thought the 1622 Fleet had sunk. The Lyons went to Seville in September - Gene was working on his Ph.D. and
researching Pedro Menendez, the founder of Florida. Not long after Gene got to Seville, he found the Avería manifest - the list of things lost on the ship. All the numbers were written in the strange
abbreviated Roman script that they used through about 1700, which made
the details hard to decipher.
A short while later, when Gene was still researching Pedro Menedez, he delved into the Cuban accounting papers and there, as Gene recalls, "Was a packet about the Santa Margarita, not large,
tied up with pink ribbon, that referred to the Atocha sinking near the Cayo de Marquesa Keys. This led me to theNational Library in Madrid where I found a
contemporary map that showed the Cayos de Marques - today's
Marquesa Keys. Without any other data, Mel moved down to Key West and began to work in the Marquesas. The rest is history."
As a historian, Gene was a natural collaborator on the idea of a historical society
dedicated to the story of the Fishers' shipwrecks. Mel and Deo had decided to found the Society because they really
wanted to find a way to perpetuate the adventure,
the value of Mel's times and finds. They all knew what
was going to happen - that every find would be divided among numerous investors - and they wanted something more. Gene points out that this sort of effort was reflected in the organization of the coin research collection - although that eventually had to go in the division too.
Gene was there for the early days during the development of the
Society’s collection. In the mid-80’s some would-be investors, known as the "Atlanta Group," made a deal with Mel - he was desperately making deals because he needed cash flow, even after the Main Pile was discovered, and he didn't have it. Many of the things that had been found up to this date were set aside for this Georgia
company, which planned to provide Mel with a regular payment. The group was to receive a tax deduction for the things they donated to the museum. They donated a good
number of items but eventually they were unable to make the payments and, as a result, the IRS disallowed the deduction. The materials, however, remained with the museum. The trove included the gold plate, the emerald cross, several significant chains, and many other artifacts. This was the basis of the museum's collection and marked the moment at which the Society
truly began. This was all done with the enthusiastic support of the Fishers, especially Deo. She held a broad vision, and knew that that there should be a monument to Mel's and everyone else's endeavors.
Gene has been on the Society's board ever since and has made
significant donations to the collection. He gives lectures at the museum approximately once a year - always to a standing-room only crowd. "Gene is part of the Society's intellectual bedrock," says Madeleine Burnside, Ph.D., the
executive director. "There's more knowledge about this period in Gene's head than anywhere else in the world."
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