About Ric

(click here to download a full bio) 

Millions of television viewers recognize Ric Mixter as a shipwreck researcher, diving over 100 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, including the Edmund Fitzgerald. He has produced over 30 programs for PBS and the Outdoor Channel, and appeared as a shipwreck expert on the History and Discovery Channels.   In 2019, Ric joined Detroit Public Television to produce on-line content as a multimedia producer for their series “Great Lakes Now”.

Ric served as SCUBA cameraman on underwater expeditions to the Great Lakes largest shipwrecks, the Edmund Fitzgerald and Carl D. Bradley.  He has interviewed dozens of shipwreck survivors over the past 15 years, including two from the 1913 Storm, two from the 1940 Armistice Day Storm and survivors from the largest shipwrecks in lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie.  He’s been Emmy nominated and has taken several awards including the Addy, Aurora, Michigan Association of Broadcasters Best Use of Medium, AP, UPI and was the 2007 Vescio award winner for a video on mental health advocacy.  With over 20 years of stories on historical preservation, Ric was awarded the 2009 Award for Historic Interpretation by the Association for Great Lakes Maritime Historians.  In 2011 he was elected to their board of directors, terming out after six years..  Ric was also a two-term president for the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association and a board member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society.

Mixter is a private pilot- flying not only single engine planes, but also has flight time in several military jets.  These include the US Air Force’s Thunderbird F-16 Falcon, and over 100 hours of camera work in the B-52 Stratofortress.  He’s flown in the Goodyear Blimp and countless biplanes and aerobatic aircraft and has also jumped several times from over 12,000 feet as a skydiver.  Ric also adept to filming in helicopters, from flying over the jungles of Honduras with the Army, to being lowered in a rescue basket into Lake Huron by the Coast Guard.

With over three million views on his YouTube videos, countless views on museum videos in four states, cover stories in magazines like Michigan History, and hundreds of downloads of his unique interview-based podcasts, Ric Mixter consistently delivers standing room only crowds for his repeat presentations all over the Great Lakes. He says his proudest productions are his three kids; Jamie, Corey and Alex. Ric and his wife Sheila live in Oakland County, MI.

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