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Graham McKay is the executive director and master boatbuilder at Lowell’s Boat Shop, a working museum located in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Lowell’s Boat Shop was founded in 1793 on the banks of the Merrimack River and is the birthplace of the dory, a tradition boat used widely in the fishing industry over the past two centuries. Today, Lowell’s is a National Historic Landmark and America’s oldest operating boat shop.

Graham’s role at Lowell’s is to oversee the boatbuilding operations building high end traditional boats for discerning customers to the centuries old Lowell’s tradition. He also acts as the curator of the museum seeking out and acquiring new photographs and objects significant to the shop and the general maritime history of the area. In addition to those responsibilities, Graham teaches several adult boatbuilding classes annually the museum’s youth after-school and summer rowing programs.

Prior to coming to Lowell’s Boat Shop, Graham was a captain for the Ocean Classroom Foundation which is an educational organization that provides programs of sea education and adventure for the youth of America aboard the schooners Westward, Spirit of Massachusetts and Harvey Gamage. Ocean Classroom Foundation is a leader in experiential education, with award-winning programs sailing from the Canadian Maritimes to the Caribbean Sea. He has also spent time as a commercial diver, commercial fisherman, and a fisheries scientist.

McKay has a master’s degree in Maritime History and Archaeology from the University of Bristol, in England and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard College. He currently serves on the Massachusetts state board of Underwater Archeological Resources.