Interviewer: Victoria Phaneuf

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I met Dr. McIlwain at his office at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL). We had spoken on the phone but never met in person. I had first introduced myself and the study some weeks before, and he mentioned he had been giving it some thought before the interview.

He has been a resident of Ocean Springs, Mississippi since 1966. He grew up in Pascagoula, living behind Ingalls where his father worked for 44 years. He discusses what life was like in Pascagoula during and after World War Two, and provides some details about a union strike and pressure to join the union. He also worked in the Ingalls yard from 1958 to 1959, first as a machinist apprentice and later as an aid in the nuclear power department, in between taking college courses and joining the army. He discusses the work that he did in those sectors (e.g., on USS Blueback, Sculpin, and Snook). He graduated with a B.S. degree in biology and psychology, and later an M.S. from the University of Southern Mississippi. In March of ’65 he began working for the GCRL, which is part of USM. He received his doctorate in 1978. He discusses the year he took off to work with then Congressman Trent Lott in 1983, as a legislative assistant on marine issues and his role in the creation of the MARFIN Program. He continued at the GCRL lab, acting as director from 1989 until he retired in 1994. Then he worked for NOAA and also again as a leg assistant with then Senator Lott (Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act). Since 2003 he has functioned as the program coordinator for the development of the Cedar Point Campus and more recently was appointed to the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council.