Scott Hercik brings to the Smithsonian Associates a life-long fascination of railways, aviation, and maritime, coupled with a professional career steeped in both multimodal transport development and international trade and travel. As a small boy, his love of trains was ignited by an annual journey with his mother and younger sister from his home in Michigan to his grandparent’s farm in western Illinois. The highlight of each trip was his travel aboard some of America’s great trains, from the California and Denver Zephyrs to Santa Fe’s Super Chief, San Francisco Chief, and El Capitan. His Michigan roots also exposed him to giant ships plying the Great Lakes, from early cruise ships and ferries to huge 1,000 ft. iron ore carriers and ocean-going freighters transiting the St. Lawrence Seaway. As he entered his teenage years, Scott’s attention quickly grew to include aviation, earning his F.A.A. pilots license at the young age of 16.

Following his graduation from Michigan State University, Scott joined the newly created Amtrak as a traveling management representative, spending two years traveling aboard Amtrak trains crisscrossing America. Scott’s carrier path brought him back home to Michigan, where he founded the “Rail Group” and helped establish a new focus on Great Lakes shipping at the Michigan Department of Transportation. While at Michigan DOT, he was appointed to lead the National Rail Passenger Task Force at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Scott’s love of trains eventually took him to Amtrak Corporate HQ, where he served as Senior Director of Advanced Projects, bringing a future-focus to a variety of the world’s most advanced rail technology and business practices. Scott followed his interest in rail, aviation, and maritime transport to a multi-state economic development agency, serving as the agency’s Transportation and Global Trade Advisor, creating unique local, state, federal, and private sector coalitions to expand access to new business and employment opportunities worldwide. Scott has led trade missions across Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia and his success in transport development was formally recognized in 2014 by the American Society for Public Administration though its “Truitt-Felbinger Award”, presented each year to one individual recognizing his/her contribution to transportation excellence in America. Fortunately for Scott, his carrier offered worldwide rail adventures, amassing a total train travel distance equal to a journey to the Moon and halfway back to Earth.

For nearly twenty years, Scott has shared his enthusiasm and experience through his role as Study Group Leader at the Smithsonian Associates. He offers unparalleled knowledge of trains, planes, and ships to his study tour members, with a balanced focus on both their early formative years, and on to the future of what can and will shape tomorrow’s transport systems. His tours have highlighted the historic magnificence of the New York Central’s Twentieth Century Limited, hosting guests onboard the “Hickory Creek”, the actual observation lounge car of this great train, to a 2019 seminar looking into the future of America’s long-distance passenger train. He has celebrated the history of Pan American World Airways and its famous “China Clipper” that introduced trans-Pacific air travel in the mid-1930’s and has hosted study tour members inside the cockpit of the giant British Airways A-380 mega-transport, now the world’s largest commercial airliner. He has introduced study group members to supersonic military fighter jets and guided study groups through the caverns of the mammoth C-5 Galaxy, the largest cargo aircraft ever to serve the U. S. Air Force. Scott’s tours have featured the great sailing ships of the 18th and 19th centuries, the ocean liner S.S. United States, America’s greatest warships, and journeyed up close and personal to giant nuclear aircraft carriers that serve both today’s and tomorrow’s U.S. Navy.

Scott provides his study group members a unique experience, not limited to simply the equipment of these great trains, planes, and ships, but also stresses the human element, introducing the men and woman who help develop and operate these magnificent machines, day in and day out. Reflecting his love and enthusiasm for his mission, more than once his tour members have described the infectious enthusiasm that Scott brings to each and every study tour adventure.

View upcoming, on-sale tours led by Scott Hercik.