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ORAL HISTORY

Richard Lynn

Lynn Brothers Seafood and Marina

Richard Lynn was born in 1943 and raised in St. Marks, Florida. His father, Heck Lynn, was tug boat captain during World War II, and he transported oil and gasoline to and from the St. Marks refinery in St. Marks, Florida. By the 1950s, his father owned a charter business. Lynn would take working class men from South Georgia and North Florida, hoping to pack their freezers full of fish for a year. Richard Lynn and his four brothers helped their father and mother run the charter boat business.

During the energy crisis of the late 1970s, Lynn and his brothers decided to try their hand at commercial fishing.  They commercially fished for grouper, snapper, and mullet, and they harvested stone crab claws. Although he has always been involved in the business his father built, Lynn also had a career in the printing industry. He retired in 1994, and returned to work with his brothers full time. Today, they commercially fish for grouper and snapper and stone crab. The Lynn brothers ship stone crab claws to restaurants all over the United States.