NORWICH, Vt. (AP) - The Montshire Museum - which borders New Hampshire and Vermont and combines those states’ names in its moniker - had humble roots in a defunct bowling alley and has grown to become a nationally recognized museum that last summer hosted the acclaimed exhibit “A T.Rex Named Sue.”
Director David Goudy, who spearheaded the museum’s evolution, is retiring after 34 years at its helm.
The Valley News of Lebanon reports (https://bit.ly/1NL3H2w ) that he came from Missouri’s Botanical Gardens in St. Louis and saw the potential of a museum of exhibits then stuffed into an old bowling alley on Lyme Road in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Decades later, the museum crowns a 110-acre campus bordering the Connecticut River in Norwich, Vermont. Its outdoor science park - which includes a watercourse running through it to the Connecticut River - will be named the David Goudy Science Park in tribute.
After the museum opened in 1976, it typically drew 2,100 visitors a year and had an operating budget of $314,000. Today it averages 157,000 visitors annually and has an operating budget of nearly $3 million.
Still, the “T. Rex Named Sue” exhibit was an eye-opener in more ways than one. The three-month exhibit - featuring a replica Tyrannosaurus Rex measuring 12 feet high and 42 feet long - drew crowds.
“We never knew what our capacity was until this (exhibit) came along,” Goudy told the Valley News. “With Sue, we did. We were getting something like 1,200 people a day. I think the busiest was a little over 1,400 in a day. The parking lot pretty much maxed out.”
Goudy, 67, says he will still be at the museum after his retirement - as a guest with his grandchildren in tow.
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