38
FOGHORN
Wirginis: By the time I got to high school, I said, “This is 
the last thing I’m doing with my life.” I went on to Ohio 
State University and got a degree in animal science, with a 
minor in biology. My granddad kept calling me back, and 
finally, after a few years, I took the bite and came back to 
work with him in 1979. 
My involvement with Passenger Vessel Association started 
back in 1981. The group that first got together in 1971, 
amounted to 18 folks from 18 different operations, a lieu-
tenant from the U.S. Coast Guard, and Jim Swift. They got 
together basically for insurance purposes, and they wanted 
to better have a relationship with the Coast Guard. 
Our old general manager, Zack D’Alesandro, and I heard 
about a meeting in 1981. We went down to Sarasota, Fla., 
and we got together with about 34 people. There were no 
exhibits. Most of the old crew was there from 1971. 
At that point it was called NAPVO, the National Asso-
ciation of Passenger Vessel Owners. Owners was the key 
word. As I went through, it became a second generation of 
people involved in the association. We began to recognize 
that the word owners no longer reflected this organization. 
We said we need to broaden our perspective. We had peo-
ple who were employees that were really running most of 
the positions of the organization. When I was president in 
1993, we were able to change the name to the Passenger 
Vessel Association. I look at that as one of the big things 
that I was able to accomplish on my watch. 
Perhaps the most important thing was back in 1988. As 
we were getting into issues with the U.S. Coast Guard, 
the board assigned Alan Bernstein and me to find some-
body that could represent and work with us. Alan and 
I were sent down to Washington, D.C. I think we had 
37 resumes of retired Navy, retired Coast Guard, and 
naval architects. One person stood out far above every-
body else, that was Pete Lauridsen. Everybody else told 
us what we needed to do. Pete actually listened to what 
we had to say, interpreted it, and then came back to us 
and said this is what we need to do. It was no doubt who 
we were going to recommend, and thankfully, the board 
made the decision. 
When we interviewed him, we didn’t recognize how much 
respect he had within the Coast Guard. He’d been a career 
person; it gave us immediate credibility that we never had 
before. Where we couldn’t get a lieutenant from a district 
office to come to visit us for the convention, all of a sudden, 
we had admirals there. We were going have the comman-
dant here this week, except for the government shutdown. 
I think that's all because of Pete. 
Lake: The next person on stage here is Mike Borg‑
strom, Wendella Sightseeing Boats, president, owner, 
third generation of a family business. 
Borgstrom: We used to have a saying, and I’m sure many 
of you had a similar saying. We’ve got about 72 stairs that 
come down from Michigan Avenue to our dock, and if you 
rolled down those stairs drunk and were able to get up, you 
were hired as a deckhand. That’s how we got a lot of our 
crew. I’m not exaggerating either. 
So, it is amazing how things have evolved over the years. I 
have to give so much credit to PVA for that. I got involved 
with PVA in the 90s. Getting involved with PVA really 
changed everything for us as a company. We really ramped 
up things, especially with safety. 
Safety is dear to me. I joined the PVA Safety and Security 
Committee and eventually became chair of that commit-
FOGHORN FOCUS
“Hospitality is important 
and regulations are  
important, but don’t try  
to cut corners on safety. 
You start with that  
and everything  
will grow from there.” 
MIKE BORGSTROM, 
WENDELLA SIGHTSEEING BOATS

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