Our Leadership Team
Our leadership team consists of officers, a board of directors, as well as our archivist and webmaster.
Each year a nominating committee presents a slate of candidates at our convention for which the attendees vote. Nominations from the floor are accepted prior to voting. Terms are for two years. The Vice President for Legal Affairs, Archivist, Treasurer, and Webmaster are appointed positions that do not have a term limit.
Looking for our general contact information?
Kevin Love
President
Kevin was born and raised in Carthage, Missouri, which was station number P115 on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. His parents’ house was next to the railroad yard there and watching the daily operations created his life-long love for the railroad.
In 1978, he started his career as a brakeman/ switchman in Coffeyville, KS on the MP. After working in various transportation department positions in Kansas and Missouri , which included a stint in management, he retired from Union Pacific in 2013 while stationed at Neff Yard in Kansas City.
Kevin has been on the board of directors since 2011 and became president in 2014. He is a model railroader and collects railroad memorabilia including an actual MP caboose that sits behind his farm shop in southwest Missouri.
René LaVoise
Vice President
René grew up in south St Louis County along the Carondelet Subdivision, which started his life-long interest in the Missouri Pacific. He is retired from a 42 year career in IT spanning the plastics, electronics, and pharmaceutical industries. René has been an MPHS Board member since 2016. Currently he resides in Kirkwood, MO and is an avid modeler. When not hiking, biking, gardening he can be found working on St Louis Union Station’s Polar Express, where he also helps maintain the hotel’s fleet of passenger equipment.
Robert Amsler, Jr.
Vice President for Legal Affairs
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Patrick Hiatte
Secretary
Pat Hiatte was born in a MoPac town (Jefferson City, Mo.) and his grandparents’ next-door neighbor, a MoPac engineer, was always willing to talk railroading with a budding enthusiast. Pat tried to go to work for MoPac, but they weren’t hiring and the Frisco was, so he wound up retiring from BNSF Railway in 2009 after a 35-year career in various public relations jobs. Retirement allowed more time to work on his N-scale version of the Sedalia Subdivision between Jeff City and Sedalia in 1962. Travel is another hobby: he and his wife, Sandy, have visited all 50 states and all seven continents.
Vacant
Treasurer
This position is currently vacant and its duties are being performed by our Secretary.
Please contact the Secretary or President if you are interested in volunteering for this position.
Robert Barnett
Director 1
Born and raised in Paris, Texas Bob grew up watching the T&P “Pumpkin” Geeps and Eagle Blue and Gray F-Units that passed through Paris on the T&P’s Paris/Bonham branch. He has been a member of the MPHS since 1986 and on the MPHS Board since 2016. He holds degrees in Architectural Construction and Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University and retired after a 48 year career in design and construction management of roads, highways, toll roads and railroads. But his favorite part was doing railroad design projects for Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, and Union Pacific.
After living for over 40 years in an inner city Houston neighborhood and building a small railroad in a 1930s era garage, he now resides in rural Washington County with his wife, dog and whatever wild creatures venture out of the woods. He is building a large operations based railroad that models the MoPac and T&P in the early 1950’s.
Ron Merrick
Director 2
Ron Merrick responded to a message in Model Railroader in about June 1973 asking for contact information on railroad historical societies. He responded with ‘if there is no Missouri Pacific historical society, I’m volunteering to start one’. By August 1973, when the magazine published their list, the Missouri Pacific was included. Several months of organization later, MPHS began in January 1974 with a mimeographed publication that went to about sixty members. After some fits and starts, the organization found a good grip on the rails by 1980.
Ron Merrick, PE, is a retired piping engineer, active in national and international standards organizations in the field of industrial piping and valves. He is the author of a book and numerous articles on the subject, lectures occasionally on new developments, and also does consulting work. He lives in Wichita, Kansas, after 45 years in Houston, and is building a model railroad featuring the Wichita Division and the environs of Wichita.
Ted Ferkenhoff
Director 3
David Huelsing
Archivist/Director
David Huelsing has been the Archivist for the MPHS since 2012, and lives in St. Louis, MO. He is a member of many historical societies, and is currently on the board of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, and is the current President of the St. Louis Chapter NRHS. Railroad interests include steam engines, passenger trains, depots, riding trains, collecting railroadiana, and general railroad history. During the holidays he can be found working the Polar Express trains at St. Louis Union Station.
Name
Position
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Name
Position
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
This Is A Very Long Name With Last Name
Position on Board that wraps to 2 lines
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Kevin EuDaly
"The Eagle" Magazine editor
Kevin EuDaly grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, frequently photographing MoPac among the 13 Class One railroads at the time. But it was while in college at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, where he discovered the White River Line of the MoPac in March 1980 during his sophomore year. He quickly fell in love with the rails running through tunnels, across expansive trestles, and along the towering bluffs of the White River. He once planned a large MoPac-themed layout, but publishing intervened.
He formed White River Productions in 1992 during his first four-year tenure as editor of The Eagle while working as an environmental chemist. He quit chemistry in 1996, devoting his time to the fledgeling publishing company and various entrepreneurial pursuits, simultaneously moving from Kansas City to rural northern Missouri. WRP grew to become the largest publisher of railroad material, and he began his second tenure as Editor of The Eagle with the Spring 2010 issue. He moved to rural East Texas in 2019, where he resides with his wife, Nadean, and a host of horses, cows, and other animals on the ranch.
Robert Drummond
Webmaster
A retired IT professional and long-time MoPac fan, Robert has experience with operating system internals, software design and implementation, project and administrative management, and website design and development.
Our Annual Convention is Coming Up!
October 10-13, 2024 | Pueblo, CO
October 10-13, 2024 Pueblo, CO
Mark your calendars! Registration options coming soon. To get updates in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
