Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
W. Donald Duckworth treasures this card he received
from the students at Punana Leo O Honolulu.

Director Duckworth
to leave Bishop
Museum in June

For 16 years he guided the
museum while raising attendance,
improving financing and
enduring controversy

An exclusive Q&A

---

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

Bishop Museum president and director W. Donald Duckworth will announce his retirement at tomorrow's noon meeting of the museum's board of directors.

Reached in Virginia, Duckworth said he plans to serve the remainder of his current contract, which expires on June 30, 2001.

"I've been a supporter of his for a long time, since he began at the museum in 1984," said board chairman Mark Polivka. "He opened up the museum to the community. He's done a good job in Hawaii, and we're sorry to see him go, but his family is on the mainland."

Star-Bulletin file photo
One of Donald Duckworth's big impacts on the community
was focusing more on interactive, family-oriented exhibits
at the Bishop Museum. Those include the current
engineering exhibit, shown here

Duckworth had broached his resignation in previous board meetings, said Polivka, but is making it official so that a search for a replacement can get under way.

"We've started to assemble a search committee, and appointed Bert Kobayashi as chair," said Polivka. "We feel a responsibility to shepherd this along. It'll be a national search, because Bishop Museum has become highly respected throughout the country under Duckworth's tenure."

"It's just time!" said Duckworth. "By the time I'm done with this thing next summer, I'll be 66, so it seemed appropriate. I've indicated to the board that I'm not going anywhere. And if it requires staying on a little bit longer to effect a smooth transition with whoever's coming after me, I'll do that.

"The board doesn't need to feel pressed for time, but they do need to get on with it."

Star-Bulletin file photo
A T. Rex replica on display this summer.

Duckworth has been at the helm of Bishop Museum for 16 years, overseeing a rocky metamorphosis from a financially troubled, cloistered campus of scholars to a highly public institution which had financial footing praised in a recent accreditation by the American Association of Museums.

Duckworth also has been criticized for laying off employees during the Hawaii recession of the 1990s, and more recently for the museum's handling of the missing Forbes Cave artifacts. Even an exhibit of dinosaurs that drew thousands of new visitors to Bishop Museum was criticized.

As he took over the museum directorship, Duckworth stated that the museum has "dual obligations, to bring Hawaii and the Pacific to the world, but in another way, to bring the world to Hawaii."

Duckworth said he had few retirement plans other than moving back to the family home in Virginia. "My wife, Sandra, was looking at catalogs the other night and there was a sweatshirt that said RETIRED: WORKING AT SPOILING MY GRANDCHILDREN. That's all I really have in mind."

Star-Bulletin file photo
Donald Duckworth in 1985, as incoming
Bishop Museum director.

Professional and
personal in brief

Highlights in the life of Dr. W. Donald Duckworth:

CAREER

President and director of Bishop Museum since 1984
President and chief executive officer of Hawaii Maritime Center since 1994
President, Hawaii Museums Association
Special assistant to the assistant secretary for museum programs, Smithsonian Institution
Special assistant to the director of the Natural History Museum, Smithsonian Institute
Curator, Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institute
Past president, Entomological Society of America
Past president, American Institute of Biological Sciences
Past president, Pacific Science Association
Past president, Association of Systematic Collections
Vice chairman, board of trustees, Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program
Board member, American Association of Museums
Board member, Iolani Palace trustees
Doctorate in entomology, North Carolina State University

PERSONAL

Wife Sandra, children Clifford, Laura and Brent
Recognized by the state Legislature as "an internationally recognized scientist and administrator who since 1984 has worked tirelessly to promote greater public outreach by the Bishop Museum, bringing the institution and the people of Hawaii closer together."

Star-Bulletin file photo
A 1998 space exhibit.