HFC reference librarian’s first book chronicles the history of the Detroit Yacht Club
HFC archivist and reference librarian John Gibson does not own a yacht, and he does not want to own a yacht. Yet he has been a member of the historic Detroit Yacht Club since 2013 and wrote a book called Detroit Yacht Club as part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series.
“My wife (Detroit Yacht Club co-author Toni Michnovicz Gibson) and I are ballroom dancers,” said Gibson. “The Yacht Club has the largest wooden floor in Detroit and southeast Michigan designed for ballroom dancing. It’s about 6,000 square feet. We host dances three times per year. The next one will be October 15."
A distinguished career at the Detroit Public Library
Born in St. John’s, Gibson lives in Grosse Pointe Park with Toni, to whom he’s been married for 46 years. They have two daughters and seven grandchildren.
A graduate of Midland High School, Gibson earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Alma College. He earned his master’s degree in library science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and another master’s degree in history from Wayne State University. He completed one semester of law school at what is now Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.
For 28 years, Gibson was a reference librarian for the Detroit Public Library. For 14 of those 28 years – 1990 to 2004 – he served as the archivist of the DPL’s Burton Historical Collection. He retired from DPL in 2013 as the manager of several library departments.
In 2005, he joined HFC (then Henry Ford Community College), while still at the DPL, and stayed until 2008. In 2014, he returned to the College. Gibson reports to HFC Director of the Library and Academic Support Services Dr. Kate Harger.
“My dad was a professor at a community college, so I found the idea of working at a college attractive,” said Gibson. “I really enjoy the fact that HFC has archives. I work as an archivist in the Eshleman Library.”
A passion for history
History has been one of Gibson’s interests, particularly historic buildings, which inspired him to write this book. The DYC’s clubhouse – its fifth – turns 100 this year.
“John is an archivist, so history is his passion. That is evident in the book that he’s written with his wife,” said Harger. “I’m sure for anyone interested in the history of the DYC, this will be a fun read.”
At 93,658 sq. ft., the clubhouse – the fifth since the DYC opened in 1868 – is the largest yacht club facility in the United States. George D. Mason – the architect of the Detroit Masonic Temple and Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel – designed the Clubhouse.
“I started researching the DYC in 2016 and the book came out this past April, so it’s good timing as we celebrate the clubhouse’s centennial anniversary,” he said. “The clubhouse opened in 1923, which was during the Roaring Twenties when Detroit was awash in money.”
Gibson pointed out the book’s audience is esoteric. It’s aimed at DYC members, people interested in local history, and people who love automotive history.
“Different aspects of the book will be of interest to different people,” he said. “To my knowledge, this is the first book about the DYC that is commercially available. There have only been private publications to this point.”
Finding the missing years and putting the puzzle together
For Gibson, the biggest challenge of writing the book was finding photos. Detroit Yacht Club contains more than 200 photos. Each photo caption has between 70-100 words. Every chapter has a foreword.
The majority of the images came from the DYC, the Burton Historical Collection, the Detroit Historical Society, The Henry Ford, and the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University.
“It was a puzzle I had to put together,” said Gibson. “The DYC has had five clubhouses total. The last three have all been on Belle Isle. In 1904, the first DYC clubhouse on Belle Isle burned down. The fire destroyed all of the business records and histories. So, one of the challenges was trying to figure out what happened before 1905.”
Fortunately for Gibson, the Detroit Free Press is completely digitized and online. This made it much easier.
“Back in the day, the Free Press reported extensively on the DYC, so that is where I found the history of the club for the missing years – 1868 to 1904,” said Gibson.
One and done
Writing and researching Detroit Yacht Club was a monumental task for Gibson and his wife. Gibson spoke about the writing process, something he described as arduous and lengthy. He researched and wrote Detroit Yacht Club, while Toni – co-author of Los Alamos: 1944-1947 and Los Alamos and the Pajarito Plateau – served as the editor. She polished the prose.
“She helped me turn my words into coherent sentences and helped me convey what I wanted to say,” explained Gibson. “The best part about writing this book was getting it done.”
Gibson has no plans to write another book.
“Detroit Yacht Club is my first and only book. I don’t intend to write any more books,” he said. “Writing is a tremendous amount of work. I prefer to read books.”
Detroit Yacht Club is for sale on Amazon.com, or inquire at local retailers.