1. Founded in 1989 to protect the Queen Mary from neglect and further destruction of her historical integrity. An expose about neglect of the Queen Mary, published in a 1989 edition of the Titanic Historical Society's Commutator, and the removal of the after-docking equipment and skylight by the Disney Corporation, were largely responsible for the Queen Mary Foundation's inception.

2. Incorporated as an official non-profit (501-c-3) organization on May 23, 1990.

3. First Guardian newsletter published in March 1991.

4. Directors addressed Port Commission, Long Beach City Council, the press and networks in a campaign to keep the Queen Mary in Long Beach in 1992 when the port transferred ownership back to the city. The Queen Mary Foundation ardently supported Joseph Prevratil at that time.

5. Gained admission to the National Register of Historic Places for the Queen Mary. The Department of the Interior granted this status on April 15, 1993.

6. Initiated and promoted the reprint of C.W.R. Winter's The Queen Mary, Her Early Years Recalled and authored several chapters in his sequel anthology, Long Live the Queen Mary.

7. Developed and organized the Queen Mary 59th Launch Anniversary; a reunion of her designer, a shipwright and crew members during the week of September 26, 1993.

8. Conceived and spearheaded the Sister City project between Long Beach and Clydebank, Scotland.

9. Organized the Queen Mary's plan rooms where the blueprints were stored and conducted specialized tours of the Queen Mary.

10. Purchased and restored the original cabin class purser's safe to the ship. This was made possible by a loan from RMS Foundation. The safe can now be viewed in the Queen Mary's museum.

11. Explored promotional schemes such as advertising the Queen Mary in Historical Hotels of America. (The vessel is eligible for this as a National Register property.) Companies throughout Britain which furnished or fitted out the Queen Mary were contacted by our organization in pursuit of restoration goals. Thomas Utley, the firm which manufactured the sidelights and windows, had agreed to restore missing or broken portholes at a special rate. This offer was turned down by the current management. Tour packages, specialty attractions, goods and services intended to maximize the liner's revenue potential were researched and proposed by our organization.

12. The Queen Mary Foundation has cultivated and maintained a world-wide network of shipbuilding firms, marine architects, surveyors, maritime museum curators, professors, shipwrights, officers and crew affiliated with the Queen Mary.

13. Produced and distributed a quarterly newsletter, The Guardian from 1991 to 1998. Managed the British award-winning Queen Mary Foundation Enthusiast's site started in 1995. This website was joined by the Queen Mary Foundation Editorial site, Turbine Tribune, in August 1997. Our international discussion group was, for nearly a decade, the only in existence solely dedicated to the Queen Mary.

14. Since 1993, the Foundation has conducted and financed several overseas research tours, presentations and interviews to promote the Queen Mary. Some examples include: Participation in the 1993 Scottish documentary, John Brown, the Man who Drew a Legend, Southampton Salutes a Queen, a 1994 BBC interview with C.W.R. Winter and the Queen Mary Foundation (transmitted from the Isle of Wight) Tale of Three Cities, delivered at the Queen Mary's Diamond Jubilee in Southampton, Castle from Clydebank, a 1994 slide presentation to the Clydebank Historical Society in Scotland, Historic Ships of the Clyde, joint seminar for the Rotary Clubs of Glasgow, Art of the Queen Mary, slides and lecture presented to the Twentieth Century Society of London, interview and transcripts provided for the 1996 audio tape narrated by HRH Prince Michael of Kent, All who Sail in Her, a 1997 slide presentation, Imperiled Icon, delivered to the Society of Port Engineers of Los Angeles and Long Beach and, research material compiled for the Phaidon Press publication, Queen Mary, by James Steele.

15. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in-flight video about the art of the Queen Mary was initiated by the Queen Mary Foundation and was a collaborative endeavor with the ship's archives department. The project originally included plans for a traveling art exhibition with venues throughout Britain (1996). Although financing and curatorial backing had been secured by the Queen Mary Foundation, the current operator did not follow through.

16. Petitioned and lobbied against the Grand Tour, the 1996 scheme to take the ship to Tokyo. Protested multiple auctions of the ship's archives.

17. RMS/QSDI filed a lawsuit on March 26, 1999 against the Queen Mary Foundation for "Unfair Competition and Dilution".

18. Judgment against the Queen Mary Foundation entered on February 14, 2000. Court ordered a permanent injunction against our use of a domain or organization name referring to the RMS Queen Mary.

19. Dissolution of the QMF at the end of February, 2000. As former president of the Queen Mary Foundation and now, as editor of the Turbine Tribune, I will resume my work. I remain optimistic that the Queen Mary can be restored to her former glory through the cooperation of expertise, dilligence and goodwill.

The ship Queen Mary is something more than 81,000 tons of cold steel. Like the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, she symbolizes the triumph of the human spirit over the adversity of war and poverty. She is a regal ambassador that continues to bring friends together even though permanently moored in Long Beach.

At the vessel's launch on September 26, 1934, King George V gave his prophetic oration. Today we are witness to his concluding wish, 'May her life among great waters spread friendship among the nations'.

Diane Rush