FODC Governing Structure
The Friends of the Delaware Canal operates as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We are governed by an appointed Board of Directors, which selects an Executive Director responsible for the everyday operations of the group. An appointed Advisory Board provides counsel.
Board of Directors
The Board is responsible for making all administrative decisions for the organization, as well as setting the activity agenda and making sure operations are governed according to the official bylaws of our 501(c)3 non-profit status.
Brett Webber
President
Brett Webber, AIA, LEED AP, is Principal of Brett Webber Architects, an award-winning architecture and design firm specializing in high performance, sustainable design. His firm is located in New Hope. Brett is active in a number of local organizations, and his firm is a Business Member of the Friends. A longtime champion of industrial and architectural heritage preservation and environmental conservation, Brett adds his professional design and construction expertise to current and future projects.
Laure Duval
Vice President
Having grown up in Bucks County, the Delaware Canal was always a feature in Laure Duval’s life. In the summer, she could walk the towpath and canoe; in winter, with luck, ice skate. She was taught the Canal’s history by her parents who were Bucks County natives and dedicated conservationists. Her father was a founding member of what is now the Heritage Conservancy and also the Solebury Historical Society.
Laure hopes to carry on this family legacy of preserving beautiful Bucks County by doing what she can to get and keep the Canal in working order for future generations.
Professionally, Laure was a psychiatrist and lived in New York City while she went to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and then began to practice. In 1986, she realized that she was a country girl at heart and moved back to Bucks County. She has resided in Tinicum Township for 30 years while practicing professionally in facilities in Flemington and Clinton, NJ. Laure retired from medical practice in 2016 and is ready to take on some new and not-so-new challenges. The Delaware Canal has much to offer in that line.
Jack Torres
Secretary
Jack’s earliest memories of the Canal are of family day trips to New Hope, when he was fortunate enough to be able to experience the mule barge rides. After moving to Bucks County, he learned that the Canal was, indeed, more than just an attraction in New Hope.
Jack resides in Erwinna, just above the Canal, and enjoys walking and biking on the towpath in what he considers to be one of the most scenic areas along the waterway’s entire length. He became involved with the Friends when he was asked to help out with Canal Clean-Up Days. Since then, he has served on the Fundraising Committee, as well as the Advocacy, Restoration and Maintenance Committee, and is also a business member of the Friends. Jack values having the Canal as part of his community and is committed to preserving it for future generations to enjoy as well.
Jack is a Real Estate Agent, licensed in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and enjoys telling his clients about the Canal, the Friends, and all of the many activities that make this area a special place to live.
Lawrence Reinfeld
Treasurer
Larry and his wife, Liz, have lived along the Delaware Canal in Bridgeton Township for the past three years and have been Bucks County resident for over 25 years. He can be found nearly every day walking along the towpath in Upper Black Eddy with his dog, Zoey.
A enthusiastic Friends’ volunteer, Larry has participated in annual Clean-Up Days, assisted with the painting of Woody’s Bridge, and is part of the Upper Black Eddy Rapid Response Team (UBERRT), which is comprised of a small group of friends who help to replace missing mile markers along the towpath and clear fallen trees.
Larry is active in other community organizations, including the Upper Black Eddy Fire Company, the BNT ( Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum) Groundwater Management Committee, and was recently elected to serve as the Judge of Elections for Bridgeton Township.
Larry is a retired attorney with over 25 years of experience in estates and trusts, and real estate and tax matters. His early retirement from the practice of law gives him time to enjoy the many recreational opportunities that the Canal has to offer.
Jeff Connell
There probably has been no one more determined to walk the full 58.9-mile length of the Delaware Canal than Jeff Connell. On Jeff’s first try at the Friends’ annual Canal Walk in 2009, the group had to turn around and head back to Easton because the Delaware River was flowing over the towpath. He persisted in 2010 and participated in four of the five Canal Walks. In 2011 and 2012, he prevailed and walked on each of the Saturdays detouring around damage and climbing over fallen trees with his fellow Canal Walkers. He now knows the route and routine so well that he served as a tour leader for the Lunch and Walk last March.
Jeff and his wife Robin live in Newtown, PA and have a second home in Lanoka Harbor, NJ. A graduate of Rider University, Jeff majored in finance and accounting. He has been a licensed real estate broker in New Jersey since 1978,and was President of the Ocean County Board of Realtors in 2001. Jeff has served on the Board of Directors and Executive Board of the Jersey Shore Council of the Boy Scouts of America since 1992. Both he and Robin are very involved in their communities and have participated in a variety of Friends’ activities and events since they became members in 2010. Jeff is ready and willing to move the Friends’ mission forward.
Joan Fullerton
For more than twenty years, Joan Fullerton has travelled to Upper Black Eddy on weekends to enjoy life Bucks County-style. The Delaware Canal has played an important role in those weekends, especially since it runs along Joan’s backyard. She enjoys the towpath in every season, especially hiking or biking it, and appreciates its diverse animal, bird and plant life as well as its beauty and tranquility. Along with her appreciation of the Canal’s pleasures came the understanding that the waterway and towpath need more help than the State Park can provide. Thus, Joan became a member of the Friends early in her Upper Black Eddy residency. In recent years, she has been serving on the Friends’ Fundraising Committee taking a key role in the production of Faces and Places in 2012. Now she is pleased to expand her role as a member of the Board of Directors.
When not in Upper Black Eddy, Joan lives in Westfield, NJ. She has worked in the international relocation industry for thirty-three years and is currently director of Global Business development for Holman United. She also serves as Treasurer for the International Friends Club.
Gordon Heisler
Living within a half-mile of the Delaware Canal for over forty years in Lower and Upper Makefield Townships and enjoying trips along the towpath since the 1970’s, Gordon has a unique appreciation for the waterway and towpath. He has been a Canal Tender for the Washington Crossing section for eight years and participated in several Canal Action Team projects. Gordon realizes the importance of preserving and improving this one of a kind park. A member of the Friends for many years, Gordon joined the Board in 2021 to assist in implementing improvements and spreading the word about the canal and towpath experience.
Professionally, after graduating from Rider University, Gordon spent forty years in oil and chemical logistics industries with FMC, Sunoco, and consulting. He also volunteers at the Morrisville Food Bank. He and his wife Barbara enjoy biking and hiking on the Canal and traveling to visit many other trails throughout the United States and Europe.
Peter Rosswaag
Pete Rosswaag has been a resident of Upper Black Eddy for 31 years, and feels privileged to have the Canal as his family’s backyard playground. Pete and Joyce raised their two daughters in a house (rebuilt after two floods) located between the Delaware Canal and Delaware River.
The Rosswaags thoroughly enjoy the benefits of the towpath – walking, jogging, running, biking, cross-country skiing, and snow shoeing. And they enjoy the waterway by canoeing, kayaking, paddle boating, and ice skating. Their five grandchildren love visiting “paradise” to share in these activities, including frequent trips to the Homestead Store for ice cream.
Pete displays his love of the canal by encouraging his grandchildren to assist in his favorite Canal Tender activities of scum busting, vine eradication, and trash collecting via canoe. What fun! He is hoping to make a difference in any way he can, so that future generations can continue to enjoy this unique and wonderful 58.9-mile waterway.
Pete worked for the State of New Jersey for 31 years in the Department of Human Services. Currently, he is the Tax Collector for Bridgeton Township.
Ken Standig
Ken and his wife Julie moved to Buckingham Township full time from New York City and Long Island in 2019, but they have enjoyed life along the Delaware River for much longer than that. Annual summer camping trips with the Boy Scouts at Treasure Island Scout Reservation, canoe trips in high school and college days, and family camping in the Delaware Water Gap were all part of their lives. Now they enjoy the views along the Canal towpath while biking, hiking and walking their dog Dizzi.
Ken retired in 2018 after a 43-year career in engineering, managing the planning, design and rehabilitation of infrastructure projects. He found working on dams, locks and canals to be the most interesting and challenging projects, including more than a dozen projects along the New York State (Erie) Canal and the D & R Canal in NJ. He hopes that experience will be put to good use along the Delaware Canal. Ken has been a member of the Friends’ Advocacy, Restoration & Maintenance Committee for the last year. Ken has degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Lehigh University and is a licensed Professional Engineer and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Michael D. Ginder
Executive Director