Our People

Chief Executive Officer

Richard Hunt
director@lewisandclark.org 406-204-7504

As a true son of Historic Trails, my journey has deep roots dating back to 1821, when my sixth great-grandparents embarked on a significant expedition from Virginia. Navigating rivers and the Boones Lick Road, they eventually settled near the Missouri River, close to Rocheport. A few years after Lewis and Clark’s expedition camped on Moniteau Creek, John and Judith Hunt became tobacco farmers in the heart of Missouri. Subsequent generations helped found and attended the University of Missouri, where Thomas Jefferson’s original gravestone still graces the historic quadrangle.

After a fulfilling business career marked by key roles in major corporate mergers and client transformations, I transitioned into retirement. My next chapter led me to become the volunteer video producer for the YouTube social media channel of the Oregon-California Trails Association. This channel effectively communicated the significance of preserving historic trails, reaching an audience exceeding 500,000 viewers in the past year.

I am delighted in my new role as the Executive Director of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. As we navigate the evolving world around us, I am confident that the future is bright. Together, we will adapt and embrace innovative methods to fulfill our role as the Keeper of the Story and Stewards of the Trail. Let us proceed on . . . .

Bill Bronson

Bill is currently retired from full-time law practice after a 38-year career focused primarily on civil trial work. He now devotes his time to a few select clients, mainly small non- profit organizations, as well as supervision of a pro bono legal services program. He also teaches on occasion college level courses in law and political science. Bill has also been active in Montana state and local politics for many years, including a twelve-year stint as a Great Falls City Commissioner; he is now in his second year as an elected Great Falls Public Schools Trustee.

Bill’s interest in Lewis and Clark stems from family, who appreciated both Western history as well as Native American history and culture. He has been active in several Lewis and Clark organizations since the early 1990s, and frequently canoes the Missouri River through the famous “White Cliffs” area, sharing with others his knowledge of the geography as well as the Expedition’s journeys through this geological wonder.

Yvonne Kean

A native of the Kansas City area, Yvonne was raised in Independence, Missouri. She is a CPA and over her 40+ year career in finance and accounting she worked in the insurance industry and in the non-profit industry, retiring in 2017 from Water.org, an international non-profit focused on providing clean drinking water to people in developing countries. Since then, she provides fractional CFO services and occasionally serves as interim executive for organizations in transition.

While researching her family genealogy, Yvonne became interested in history and the stories of people who preceded us. During the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial celebrations, Yvonne became interested in the Lewis & Clark expedition with its stories of exploration and challenge. She joined the MO-KS Riverbend Chapter and the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation and is currently a member of the board of directors with both organizations.

Jim Sayce

Jim Sayce lives a mile from where he was born in site of the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River. Like the Expedition, he crossed North America on his own power, cycling 4,000 miles from Pacific County through Canada to New York. After a decade studying marine ecology and evolutionary biology he returned home and built a diverse career including two decades of cranberry farming & construction followed by three decades in Community Development, History, Economic Development and his current position managing the Port of Willapa Harbor.

Jim credits his interest in Lewis and Clark to a fateful Boy Scout canoe trip in 1968 from Pigeon Point (near to Pillar Rock) to present day Station Camp at McGowan. Forty years later he found himself one of four individuals who successfully navigated the turbulent development waters around the construction of Middle Village- Station Camp.

Robert Heacock

Robert is a member of Pacific Northwest Region of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc., and is chair of the Trail Stewardship Committee and is a member of the Governance Committee for the Foundation. He is also past President Washington Chapter LCTHF, and Historian for Spokane Westerners Corral.

Robert is a frequent contributor to Washington Chapter LCTHF newsletter Worthy of Notice, and author of Wind hard from the west – The Lewis and Clark Expedition on the Snake and Columbia Rivers.  He has attended, planned or presented at nine different Annual Meetings of the LCTHF. A member of the Washington Chapter since shortly after its 1997 inception, and currently on the PNW Chapter transition board, Robert had always been impressed with the historical and intellectual aspects of the LCTHF and will strive to maintain the high quality and professionalism of the organization.

His work career was in insurance claims and Special Investigations, and project management.  His current hobby job is as Historian on the Snake and Columbia River cruise boats. His penchant for travel has led to trips that are usually filled with ‘seeing where it happened’. 

Gary Kimsey

Gary was a marketing and public relations specialist and a journalist during his 50-year career. He worked for Colorado State University and the University of Colorado Health System. He was a reporter for the Kansas City Star; editor of Colorado State Magazine and Healthword; and special projects editor for Denver Monthly Magazine. Gary retired in 2014 and has since done volunteer work for the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.

He lives part of the year in the northern Colorado Rockies and the other part in Independence, Mo., near the Missouri River traveled by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Gary’s interest in the expedition stems from a 6-month trip he took in 1973 retracing the trail by canoe, foot and backpack.

Vacant Position

Richard Welch

Richard’s love affair with the Expedition began in 1996, when I read Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage.  He was taken by Ambrose’s riveting account of the Corps of Discovery’s adventures, as well as his eloquent description of how his family’s travels along the trail has drawn them together.  Inspired by that book, two years later the Welch Family was in Great Falls, Montana on Independence Day for the opening of the beautiful Interpretive Center high on the bluff overlooking the Missouri River.  And in the summer of 2001, they piled into a minivan for a cross-country road trip roughly following the Lewis and Clark trail from Virginia to the Oregon coast.  They covered 3000 miles over five weeks, stopping at dozens of sites and visiting roughly a dozen national parks along the way.  They asked a lot of our children–ages ten and twelve—on that trip.  But like the Corps of Discovery, they saw wondrous sights along the trail and made memories that will last a lifetime.  Now in their early thirties, his children remember that trip fondly and often.

            And last summer, Richard joined other Lewis and Clark enthusiasts for the LCTHF-sponsored canoe trip through the White Cliffs of the Missouri, a magical place if there ever was one. He has a strong interest in and passion for Lewis and Clark and considers it an honor and privilege to serve on the board of the directors of the Foundation.