Curator’s Department
Welcome to the Curator’s Department:
Staffed by David Way
David Way is the one man army responsible for the historic
archival and research work done onboard the Battleship IOWA. He is the ship’s
curator. For those not yet initiated, that means he is the keeper and custodian
of IOWA’s collection of artifacts. Mr. Way is quite the lively figure. When he
isn’t collecting research for various projects on board, putting together new
displays, giving special IOWA Curator’s Tours, looking after his family and
taking care of a ton of business, he is trying to catch up building his warship
model kits collection. Truly, he is passionate about his work. So how did he
get here? How does one become a curator to a battleship?
“It is so difficult to explain how I got here.”
-Mr. Way
He’s always had a fascination with ships. David Way (or
Dave as his colleagues call him) started his early career near his hometown of
Long Beach City at the Queen Mary. There he worked for 11 years, doing
everything from ticket selling, to being a British Bobby. After graduation from college, he quickly became an administrative assistant on-board. His
interest in warships and naval affairs led him to join the Naval Institute in
1979 and the Navy League to assist active personnel out at sea. Due to his
involvement with these organizations, he became a part of two commissioning committees
for American warships. For all of his interactions with naval vessels, it was
the Iowa-class that interested him the most. He loved the New Jersey, as he had
toured on it. It was majestic. Later in life, he would be involved with the
Iowa-Class Preservation Group.
As fate would have it, one of his coworkers at the Queen
Mary led Mr. Way to work for Rockwell’s Space Division. Rockwell is one of
the many companies that would be eventually bought by Boeing. For 15 years,
David would work as a Financial Analyst, attached to Boeing’s Space Shuttle program.
His involvement with Space Shuttle program led him to several start-up gigs.
Like with Boeing, they too were quite fascinating and a tale with itself. One
interesting job was with Sea Launch, a company that operated in California with
Ukrainian and Russian input for sea-launched mobile platforms. Boeing would
recall Dave’s attention.
Back at Boeing, Dave worked with the Future Combat
System. The FCS (Future Combat Systems) was the United State army’s main
modernization program from 2003 to 2009. When FCS ended, Boeing was going to
send him outside of California.
Again, fate would intervene. Twenty five years ago, David
joined the initial efforts to preserve the Iowa-class of Battleships with the
Iowa-Class Preservation Group. Due to family matters, he couldn’t stay with
that project for too long. When the efforts to save Battleship IOWA in
Richmond, California picked up, David joined as a part of the team to rescue
the said ship. The first days of recovering the ship was recalled as being adventurous,
with the exploration of dark corridors, uncovering of mothballed rooms, and sleeping
where officers once ate. On-board an Iowa-class again, David recalled his
memories of being on board the New Jersey, being in majestic awe. So, he took a
leap of faith. From Boeing, he came to become the IOWA’s curator. Saving the battleship
was not an easy matter. There were a ton of difficulties and setback. But in
the end, everything came through.
Behind-the-Scenes Curator's Tour:
Behind-the-Scenes Curator's Tour:
The Curator’s Tour on Battleship IOWA is special. To say
that it’s special is an understatement, however. Visitors get to tour into the
underbelly of a ship that was almost used as target-practice. It’s a historic
ship that served through the Second World War, Korean War, and the Cold War.
The special behind the scenes artifacts of the Curator’s Tour is even more
special, with artifacts leftover from the Imperial Japanese Navy, artwork left
over by those that once served, and military equipment- some of which still in
service (a certain missile system comes to mind, but only the Curator’s Tour
offers examples of the ammunition to counter it). It’s all onboard a
Battleship, a mighty heavy gunned vessel, which is one of the last of their
kind. Anyways, this section is included to give you a sample of it.
Battleship Archives:
Dave will also be helping with Battleship Archives. Many
of the historic pictures, subjects, topics, facts, and tidbits are straight
from his office. He is a certified awesome dude. If there are any readers interested
in artifact donations or to help volunteer with digital archival work, please
send me an email. Battleship Archives is working in conjunction with the
Curator’s Office, in order to provide news, behind-the-scenes-coverage, and
information that pertain to the Battleship IOWA.
That’s it for now, cheers!
