Board of Directors

Lake Havasu City Historical Society & Museum of History

2021 Board of Directors

 

Melanie Preston
Interim President

Melanie currently serves as the President of Havashire Festivals Inc. Board of Directors located in Lake Havasu City, AZ. She has served on the board since 2017 and has been the London Bridge Renaissance Faire Executive Director during this time.
 
Melanie first became involved with the renaissance faire as a community volunteer for the inaugural event in 2015. Over time Melanie became passionate about the opportunity to bring something distinctive and educationally based to residents of Lake Havasu City. The event not only helps tourism growth, but also donates the proceeds to scholarships and educational opportunities, locally.
 
Melanie’s interests lie in culture, education, and art. She is currently a dance instructor at Footlite School of Dance in Lake Havasu City, AZ. She also loves to spend her down time creating choreography, painting, and working on crafting projects that are usually historically based.
 
Prior to her current position as a dance instructor, Melanie had worked at Sears Roebuck & Co. for six years, in Temecula, CA. During that time, she was the department manager for several areas including the office or HUB, shoe department manager and Home Improvement assistant manager. She also was a cash/sales manager at Ralph Lauren in 2006. She ultimately decided to become a stay-at-home mom and homeschool her daughter who had several learning and speech challenges to overcome at that time. Melanie also earned an associate degree in Humanities from Mount San Jacinto College in California while raising her daughters.
 
She has the desire to see the museum grow and provide opportunities to not only be a tourist destination but to also a destination for locals to experience culture and educational opportunities and events. She feels these opportunities are lacking in the community of Lake Havasu City at this time, but there is potential for the museum to become a hub for the community to fill this void. We have such a unique history in this town, and it is a crucial that it is not forgotten with the up-and-coming generations. She feels It would be an honor to serve on the board of the museum and witness it reach its full potential in the years to come.

Joan McDermott
Secretary

Joan McDermott was born in Wisconsin and grew up on a dairy farm.  She was part of a very large family with four grandparents who were German immigrants.  She attended Walther Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago.  Joan was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1967 at Fort Sam Houston.  She served two tours of duty in Vietnam in 1968 and 1971, where she also volunteered at local civilian hospitals and orphanages.   Between the overseas tours, she was assigned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and worked as a cardiovascular open heart surgical unit nurse.  After her active duty service, she was employed as an intensive care and surgical nurse in San Francisco and volunteered at a half-way house for drug- and alcohol-addicted individuals.

She became the wife of an active duty Army officer and fellow Vietnam veteran in 1974.  During his assignment at Fort Leavenworth, she worked at a local hospital as a nursing supervisor.   She was very active in support of the foreign officers and their families from 52 countries attending the U.S. Staff College and worked with Girl Scouts of America.  Following her husband’s assignment to Australia, they returned to the U.S. to Fort Riley, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Washburn University in Topeka in 1982. She also volunteered for 3 years as a guide for tours of the historic Army post.  

When her spouse was assigned to Fort Bragg, she attended classes, along with her husband, to prepare for his assignments as a foreign area officer.  They then moved to the Philippines for two years.  Joan volunteered to support orphanages and organizations for children at risk.  She was in Manila with their three children when the revolution deposing Ferdinand Marcos occurred, while her spouse was in Washington, D.C.  She was able to assist in reporting events as they unfolded to her husband who was in the Pentagon.  After three years in Singapore, Joan attended Bahasa Malaysia language classes in Washington, D.C., in preparation for her husband’s assignment to Malaysia.  During her life in Southeast Asia, she volunteered with many organizations including the International School, local charities and Boy Scouts.  Joan co-founded support groups in Singapore and Malaysia for parents who had children with learning disabilities. As an American military attache’s wife, she assisted with the coordination of embassy and attache events, hosting individuals from many countries and highlighting visiting American artists and leaders.

Upon her husband’s retirement, the couple moved to Washington State.  Joan resumed her nursing career and worked as a supervisor at an Area Agency on Aging in Bellingham, Washington.  She also was a hospice volunteer for 9 years.

Since moving to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, 12 years ago, Joan worked as a home health nurse and supervisor until her  retirement.  She has been active as a Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post commander and district commander, as well as in other elected positions at State level and on the VFW National Convention Committee for 3 years.  Joan is a member of the American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America, the Elks, the Eagles, and is the current Second Vice-President for the Military Officers Association of America.  She has represented the VFW at local veteran stand-downs for 6 years. She has been a member of two Western Arizona Council of Governments (WACOG) boards for several years and has been a volunteer Medicare counselor with WACOG for 7 years.   Joan has been the mentor coordinator for the Havasu Veterans Treatment Court and Havasu Veterans’ Resource Team for 6 years.  She was  a committee member for the Freedom Bridge Foundation, is on the the Nine-Eleven Ceremony Committee, and the Vietnam 50th Commemorative Anniversary Committee.  She has been a Board member and is the current secretary for the London Bridge Plaza Association.  Joan has acted as an advisor for local Boy Scout Eagles candidates.  And she is a 2016 inductee into the Arizona Veterans’ Hall of Fame.

Carole Coleman
Treasurer

Carole Coleman graduated from Univ of California Santa Barbara with a degree in Political Science and University of South Florida, Tampa, FL  for her second degree in Accounting. She currently owns a Tax and Accounting Business located in Downtown Havasu on McCulloch Blvd.

Active Licenses held include:
CPA (Certified Public Accountant) , State of Florida
 EA  (Enrolled Agent), Federal License empowered under the
 Dept of US Treasury (Internal Revenue Service)

She moved to Lake Havasu City in July of 2001. She has been a Board of Director for the Lake Havasu Museum of History since 2018. She is Married and likes to kayak in her free time. 

 

Charlsey Fram
Director of Collections

Over the past 14 years, Charlsey Frahm held many positions at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum acquiring a well-rounded museum portfolio. During her time there, she organized fundraising events and exhibitions, led the volunteer team, and cared for the collections.

Since 2018, Charlsey has been Retail Clerk at Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum, serving the attraction’s gift shop while managing high volume sales. In 2020, Charlsey joined The Neon Museum as a Museum Interpreter, leading tours around the iconic “neon boneyard.” 

Her volunteer experience included the Lost City Museum, the National Atomic Testing Museum, and the Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas. Charlsey has been a member of the Nevada Museum Association since 2017.

Adam Romano
Director

Published, traveled, award-winning realistic/surrealistic tattoo artist, Adam Romano excels in tattooing, painting and fine art, as well as giving back to the community. Adam is a member of the Havasu Art Guild and has given a lecture on tattoo/art history at a Creative Comrades seminar, as well as being a featured artist for First Friday. As an executive member of the Allied Arts Council of Lake Havasu City, in 2017 Adam created and organized the Fall Artistry Workshop to provide art education to young artists for free. Local artists, teachers, and organizations donated their time and support to teach a variety of art techniques to 75 grade school students at this one-day event. Food and drink were donated as well as the Havasu Ballet offering a performance during lunch time.

In January 2020, Adam created and curated the “Past / Present / Future” benefit art show. The show featured art from artists that have passed away, working artists, and over 50 student artists. Adam coordinated with the High School and Middle School art teachers to include their students in the show. This event subsequently raised $2000 and this money was donated to the arts department of the Lake Havasu Unified School District. This event was sponsored by the Allied Arts Council and Creative Comrades with additional assistance from Havasu Art Guild. Also, in January 2020, a painting by Adam entitled “Bridge Between Two Cultures” was on display at the Lake Havasu History Museum and Mr. Romano was asked to help as a consultant for the art show held to accompany the traveling “Waterways” exhibit.

In 2013, Adam curated “The Show Must Go On” a carnival and sideshow themed art show displaying work from over 45 national and international tattoo artists. Also, in 2013, Adam self- published an art book entitled “Wanderlust” that has since been published through Kingpin Tattoo Supply.

President Emeritus

Lyle Matzdorff
Ed Walker 

Read the By- Laws

Interested in becoming a Lake Havasu Historical Society Board Director or Officer? 

Reach Out: director@havasumuseum.com