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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Leslie Graham

NASM Wall of Honor Testimonial for Joseph Romito

Joe Romito has performed admirably at the National Air & Space Museum (NASM) as a docent and Visitor Services volunteer since 2003. He began working at the Udvar-Hazy Center (UHC) when that part of the museum opened in December 2003. At that time, he was a volunteer in Visitor Services who was instrumental in ensuring that visitors to the facility received a warm greeting and had their questions answered about the Center, what was to be found, and how to maximize the enjoyability of their visit.
He then underwent training in one of the early docent classes that resulted in his qualification to give tours at both UHC and the National Mall Building (NMB). For a number of years, he gave superb tours—public, scheduled, and VIP—on multiple days each week at both of NASM’s public facilities. Through extensive reading about the artifacts, he built a knowledge base about the museum’s collection that was second-to-none.
Because of his excellent familiarity with the collection’s artifacts and his excellent command of the English language and its expression in writing, he was brought in as assistant editor of the Docent Guides. At the time, the Guides consisted of four volumes that covered the aircraft, space, gun, and aero-engine collections of the museum in easy-to-read historical and technical summaries of each of the major artifacts on display in the museum. In the case of aircraft, all of the displayed, stored, and on-loan artifacts were covered. Several years later, Joe took over as the editor and expanded the Guides even further. By 2023, the six-volume Guides covered even more of the collection and contained volumes on general topics, the museum facilities, and tour outlines for the docents in addition to the artifacts. Joe has made sure that they are always current, and that new items in the collection and on display are written up and given to the docents immediately. The guides are more than 2000 pages in length and are the “go-to” source of everything that a docent needs to understand in order to give the first-class tours that NASM docents have become known for.
In addition to his tours and editorship of the Docent Guides, Joe also became an active participant in the Docent Council and a number of docent committees that provided advice to the staff, particularly during the pandemic period. The staff and, particularly, the docents consider him to be one of the “fountains of knowledge” concerning not only the artifacts but also what is going on in the museum. His wise counsel led to many actions taken as the museum facilities reopened to the public after the pandemic.
A docent’s docent, Joe Romito has firmly established his place in the annals of NASM volunteers, and he has earned every accolade possible from his peers and the staff. His place on the Wall of Honor is truly well earned.