As many of you already know, I am leaving the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and moving on to a new job at Mount St. Mary's Seminary. I am going to leave my position of Executive Director behind along with 15 years of fantastic experiences and move into the position of Assistant Director of Human Formation. I leave the Museum with the greatest fondness and hopes that I will be able to continue to help the Museum in the future in some way. But it is time for a change, and God has blessed me with a great opportunity.
In my new job I will be assisting in the preparation of men for the Catholic priesthood. As a Catholic Deacon, I am keenly aware how important the priesthood is to our ability to evangelize and spread Christ's message to the world. It is a great honor to have chosen to assist in this important work. I have had many come to me and ask how I can leave history behind, and how a Museum director could change career paths so drastically. I want to take a moment and answer both of these questions.
First, I am not leaving the world of history at all. Since my new job requires that I work an academic year, I will actually have a greater opportunity to do some research and consulting that I am currently unable to do with a 12 month schedule. I hope to take all I have learned in working with Museums for over 30 years and help small and medium sized museums in the mid-Atlantic area. I hope to offer an affordable consulting service and pass all I have learned along to others. I also hope to spend some time each summer to move my ballistic studies forward and I even have a few banjos I want to make. In all, history will always be a part of my life.
As for making such a drastic change in career, I must say, I do not see that great of a change. You see, as am Executive Director, one of the things I do is spend much of my time acting as a public face for the Museum. I am out and about speaking, soliciting donations, talking to the media and spreading the word abou Civil War medical history. I also administer the Museum. I handle staffing issues, hire and fire, manage a budget, deal with maintenance, technology, volunteers and everything else needed to keep the Museum going. Now I am going to help train Priests. What do they do? They preach, solicit donations, talk to the media, spread the Word of God, administer their parishes, handle staffing, technology, budgets, volunteers, maintenance, and everything else that they need to keep the parish going. Much of what we do is the same. We both survive on donations, goodwill and commitment to our organization's mission. I am going to be able to take my experience and pass it to them.
I cannot express how wonderful it is to be able to use my experience to help build a stronger priesthood AND still get to follow my love of history. For those of you in the history world, you will certainly still see me around on TV, in articles and in museums. For those of you who know me from my work in the Church, you will see me more at events like retreats and vocations events.
And what of this blog? It will keep going. As I see things that stir my interest in history and the museum industry, I will comment here.
Thank you all for following my musings!
