Gregg M. Turner

GREGG M. TURNER (b. New London, Conn. USA), retired collegiate educator, has authored fourteen non-fiction books, many on the enterprise of transportation and Florida history. He graduated from Mitchell College, Eastern Connecticut State University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Turner's 'Connecticut Railroads, an Illustrated History' received the United States Congressional Certificate of Merit; his 'Journey into Florida Railroad History' won the Florida Book-of-the-Year award for non-fiction presented by the Florida Historical Society, Florida State University, and the Florida Library Association. Writing about his Connecticut book, the eminent railroad historian Albro Martin notes "it is simply superb. No other attempt to tell the story of railroading in a single state using a maximum of period photographs and a minimum of text can match it." Turner's other railway books include: 'Railroads of Southwest Florida'; 'A Milestone Celebration: The Seaboard Railway to Naples and Miami'; 'A Short History of Florida Railroads'; and 'Florida Railroads in the 1920s.' A former national director and curator of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society at Harvard Business School, Turner has also written many articles as well as co-authoring a definitive biography of southern transportation tycoon Henry Bradley Plant (a Connecticut native) entitled 'The Plant System of Railroads, Steamships, and Hotels.' Additionally, the author has penned two books about historic Fort Myers, Florida (winter home of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford) and another about the creation of Venice, Florida in the Roaring Twenties, conceived by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in Cleveland. Of his newer books, 'The Florida Land Boom of the 1920s' explores one of the greatest building and migration episodes in American history, one that forever defined the Sunshine State. "Turner’s book about the [1920s] Boom in paradise is well-researched and well-written. Anyone interested in the history of Florida will want to add this book to their collection"--The Florida Historical Quarterly. Turner's latest articles include the famed Air Line Railroad in Connecticut that appears in the 2019 Fall/Winter issue of RAILROAD HISTORY magazine published by the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. A biographical sketch of S. Davies Warfield, former president and chairman of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, appears in the 4th Quarter, 2023 issue of LINES SOUTH - the magazine of the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroads Historical Society. Of Turner's newer books, 'The New York and New England Railroad' (released in December 2020) is the first book about that firm. Another unique work is 'William and Henry Walters, Father & Son Founders of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad" which appeared in February 2022. In March 2024 his newest book - 'The Deadliest Train Wrecks of New England" - was released by The History Press of Arcadia Publishing. The author resides in Fort Myers, Fla.