Bio

Dr. Fix grew up on the coast of southeastern Connecticut where he fell in love with watercraft of all types. An avid sailor from the age of six, growing up he spent half the year sailing and racing sailboats on Fishers Island Sound, and the rest of the year reading about history. In 1981 he began his career in the field of historic maritime preservation at Mystic Seaport Museum Mystic, CT working first for the Education Department and later for the Museum’s Henry B. du Pont Preservation Shipyard. It was this love of watercraft, and the encouragement of several prominent marine archaeologists and preservationists, that led him to enter the graduate program in Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University in September of 1996.

In January 1997, he began working for the Conservation Research Lab where he has served in several capacities over the last two decades. He has directed field work and developed archaeological and conservation plans for sunken aircraft in Irian Jaya, Indonesia and in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Dr. Fix was the principal conservator for the 17th-Century French ship La Belle and head of her reconstruction in the Texas State History Museum in Austin, TX. Currently he is Co-Principal Investigator for the conservation of two disarticulated 18th-Century ships, from New York City and Alexandria VA, and two dugout canoes from Louisiana.