Title: President
Company: Rivertownes PA USA
Location: Marietta, Pennsylvania, United States
David C. Haneman, President at Rivertownes PA USA, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in historic preservation.
Currently, Mr. Haneman provides superior service as president of Rivertownes PA USA, a premier non-profit organization that manages and preserves the Musselman-Vesta Iron Furnace Center and surrounding iron furnace remains. The organization also cultivates art, heritage, and recreation in the river towns of Columbia, Marietta, and Wrightsville. The Musselman-Vesta Furnace was built in 1868 by Henry Musselman from Marietta and Henry Miller Watts and was the last of eight anthracite-fired hot blast iron furnaces to be built on the river floodplain between Columbia and Marietta, Pennsylvania and the last complete blast furnace to be constructed in Lancaster County. Such furnaces employed burning anthracite coal to smelt pig iron and made Pennsylvania a leader in iron production for the railroad industry and other uses in the latter half of the 19th century. The furnace ceased operations in the 1930s.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in divinity from Lancaster Bible College in 1974, Mr. Haneman excelled for nearly three decades as an employee with Mars, Incorporated, the multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products, before turning his attention to historic preservation. He has attained Pennsylvania Preservation Awards and the Pennsylvania Council of Social Studies Award for Best Program in 2021. An avid pen and ink artist, he has attained several art awards.
Mr. Haneman attributes his success to learning from others who have lived in the area for many years as well as to learning from the members of Rivertownes PA USA. Additionally, he is also passionate about history and about being able to portray history through modeling, drawing or writing and teaching. Moreover, he also believes that God has given all people different talents and abilities.
One of the projects which Mr. Haneman considered a career highlight was his involvement and work at the Musselman-Vesta Iron Furnace Center restoration, which took 10 years to finish. Rivertownes PA USA also worked with a number of groups to replace the lights on the mile-long bridge that crossed the Susquehanna between Wrightsville and Columbia. Through PennDOT, they currently have replicas of the original cast iron lights. He is also proud of being able to receive two Pennsylvania Preservation Awards, one for the organization’s outstanding work in the restoration of a bridge and the other for the Musselman-Vesta Iron Furnace Center restoration. Rivertownes PA USA also received the Pennsylvania Council of Social Studies Award for the best program in the State of Pennsylvania related to the educational programs that they have established at the Musselman-Vesta Iron Furnace Center.
In the coming years, Mr. Haneman hopes for Rivertownes PA USA to continue to expand. Pen and ink art is a form of art that not a lot of artists use nowadays, as it is time-consuming. However, it is something that he hopes to continue to focus on in terms of capturing history one piece at a time. He also would like the Musselman-Vesta Iron Furnace Center’s building and facility more accessible to the citizens of Marietta.
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