Posted on 03/15/2008 11:31:37 AM PDT by jazusamo
The Smithsonian Institution, beleaguered by questions over how much it pays its executives and how they spend the organization's money, said Saturday it has picked Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough as its new leader.
Clough will become the 12th secretary of the world's largest museum and research complex on July 1, assuming control of an institution that has been in turmoil in the past year.
Clough will usher in a new era, "bringing a unique combination of academic achievement, talent, leadership skills and experience in public service, science, management and development," Smithsonian board Chairman Roger Sant said in a news release.
Clough, 66, has served as president of Georgia Tech since 1994 and has degrees in civil engineering. He is credited with transforming the Atlanta school into a top 10 public university, boosting spending on research and raising nearly $1.5 billion.
He previously held high-level posts at the University of Washington and Virginia Tech and taught at Stanford and Duke universities.
"During his remarkable career, Wayne has shown an ability to dramatically advance the institutions and constituencies he has served," said Alan Spoon, a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents and chairman of the search committee.
The Smithsonian, which includes the National Zoo and the National Air and Space Museum, is returning to its academic roots with the selection of Clough. The first 10 secretaries to lead the institution had academic backgrounds, most of them in the sciences.
The last secretary, businessman Lawrence Small,...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Go Dawgz!!
Clough has been a great President of Georgia Tech. He will be hard to replace.
I’m glad to hear Clough is a good man, Small did much damage to the Smithsonian.
Wow, a big loss for Georgia Tech. This guy is a great leader.
Now if they can temper their lefty slant and global warming, I mean climate change, mantra. They are not as bad as Nat Geo, but I did not resubscribe from my gift subscription. 75% of their articles are great I must admit. The letter to the mag are hilarious from the lefties always complaining about some sort of coverage.
In the future, I hope that the Smithsonian opens branch museums in literally every State, in a partnership with the State governments.
The idea being to have a permanent exhibition of the massive amount of “overflow” exhibits currently warehoused by the Smithsonian, particular to that State, combined with that State’s historical museum exhibits and traveling national exhibits.
That is, the Smithsonian has an enormous amount of treasure that is never displayed because of space constraints. To loan such treasures to the States as semi-permanent exhibits would strongly augment their own historical museums, and return them to public view, where they were intended.
Importantly, the Smithsonian has tried to do this in recent years, but with wildly inappropriate “theme” annexes. One such in my area was a combination of mistakes.
In a building complex that was a white elephant architectural abomination and a repeated business failure, they planned to put an African-American exhibit. In a city where blacks are less than 1% of the population.
Fortunately, it did not come to pass.
In federal standards, the expense is small, mostly shipping and handling. The State museums would be in charge of the displays, just like any other museum loan.
It would be wonderful if that could be done. As you say, they have so much that the vast amount will never be put on display unless something of that nature is worked out.
I was fortunate to have visited the Smithsonian in 1956 and again in 1965, they are both memorable visits.
It’s a shame that every American can’t make the visit at least once in their lifetime. If our treasures were spread throughout the United States it would make those treasures accessible to many more.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.