Jim Kosmo is a national award-winning journalist, a licensed Mississippi riverboat pilot, and partner of Padelford Riverboat Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a lifelong writer, having learned at the typewriter of his mother, Virginia, who was a correspondent for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in the 1950s. Before joining the family riverboat business, he was a newspaper editor and corporate public relations executive. Kosmo founded the Minnesota Valley Branch YMCA, served as chair of the Rivers Region of the national Passenger Vessel Association, served on the Bayport (MN) Planning Commission, and was elected a Bayport City Council member and mayor. Since 2008, he has served on the board of the St. Paul Rotary Club. He is a Paul Harris Fellow and Elmer L. Anderson Fellow. He also has created two endowed college scholarship funds. Kosmo balances his family life with eight adult children and ten grandchildren along with a successful career and the rewards of public service.