Lasch steps down from Friends of the Hunley
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/10840273.htmAssociated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Warren Lasch was standing graveside as the final crew of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was buried last year when he realized he had completed his mission.
After more than seven years at the helm, the Charleston businessman resigned last week as chairman of Friends of the Hunley.
"It's tough, but it's time," Lasch said.
The Hunley was recovered in 2000, excavated and then its eight crewmen laid to rest last April. Within a few years, it will be in a North Charleston museum.
Under Lasch's leadership, the $9 million Hunley project finished on time, under budget and debt-free.
"The Hunley wouldn't be there if it wasn't for Warren," says Clive Cussler, the novelist who led the expedition that found the sub in 1995, and a member of the Friends of the Hunley board. "He has done a magnificent job, put a lot of time and money into the project, and never asked for one cent."
Since 1997, when state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, asked Lasch to lead the nonprofit with a promise that it would take "no more than 10 hours every other week," the Ohio-born entrepreneur has spent more time overseeing the Hunley project than his various trucking and medical industry businesses. He has donated office space, employee time and, often, written the checks out of his own pocket.
McConnell, chairman of the state Hunley Commission, says the next step for the Friends is unclear _whether there will be a new chairman, or some sort of reorganization. Lasch, he says, is a tough act to follow.
"He's leaving us in such good shape we'll be able to complete the journey," McConnell says. "And I've made him promise to be there when the Hunley makes that trip from the lab to its final home. He is a member of the Hunley's fourth crew, and that's the highest honor I can give anyone."