36 MARCH 2018 • FOGHORN MEMBERNEWS • Reduced Fuel Consumption • Reduced Wake Wash • Optimized Trim Control • Increased Passenger Comfort and Safety • Active Ride Control Stabilization Robert Lumpp didn’t plan to have a career in passenger vessels. He started out working in broadcasting, advertising and commercial art. But, when he and a friend built a houseboat and cruised the Illinois River, he knew he had found his true calling. “I fell in love with the rivers,” Capt. Lumpp said of that early river cruise. He got his license and by 1972 he was m a n a g i n g R i v e r Excursions in Hannibal, MO, running the 108-passenger Lady D. The following year he bought his first boat. “In 1973 and ‘74 I owned and operated the City of Nauvoo at Nauvoo, IL,” said Capt. Lumpp. “It was quite a lot of work and very little money!” He headed back to Hannibal, and this time, as the operation’s owner. “I bought the Hannibal operation in 1975 and started the Great River Packet Company (later renamed the Mark Twain Riverboat Company) with the 150- passenger sternwheeler Mark Twain.” Business was going well, so he expanded the operation. In 1982, he brought in a 400-passenger vessel, also named Mark Twain, which is still located in Hannibal under the ownership of Capt. Steve Terry. Capt. Terry was one of the people who honored Bob Lumpp at the PVA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on January 31 in Savannah, GA. While Hannibal remained his head- quarters, he expanded to several markets, including: • Mississippi Riverboat Company at Tunica, MS; 400-passenger Tunica Queen, which renamed Arkansas Queen at North Little Rock • Chattanooga Riverboat Company; 500- PVA Hall of Fame’s Captain Bob Lumpp’s Long and Successful Career passenger Southern Belle, and operating with owner Joy Reinert • Knoxville Riverboat Company; 500- passenger River Queen, operating a smaller boat with Capt. John Farmer • Falls Cities Riverboat Company, Jeffersonville, IN; 500-passenger River Queen, a joint venture with BB Riverboats • Alabama Cruises, Mobile, AL; 150- passenger Southern Belle. Somehow, one of the hardest working captains on the inland rivers found time, with a handful of other passenger vessel owners, to help establish the National Association of Passenger Vessel Owners (NAPVO), now the Passenger Vessel Association. In the early years of NAPVO/PVA, the main objective was to secure adequate insurance for vessels carrying passen- gers for hire. After Dick Lynn, of River City USA, in Kansas City, MO, became president the organization began to look ROBERT LUMPP, CONTINUED ON PAGE 37