The late John Gardner was for many years the Associate Curator of Small Craft at Mystic Seaport Museum and Technical Editor for National Fisherman magazine, which began publishing his boatbuilding articles in 1951. A one-time school teacher, he received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Columbia University before turning to boatbuilding in 1940. As that most rare of people, a superb craftsman who could also write well, he became the single most influential proponent of the art of wooden boatbuilding, and is credited with the renaissance of the craft in the 1970's.