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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, November 2, 2006

Bishop Museum chief leaving

Advertiser Staff

Bishop Museum president and CEO William Brown has agreed to become president of The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, where he will begin his new duties on Feb. 1.

Brown has headed the Bishop Museum for five years, during which time the museum built and opened the $17 million Science Adventure Center. The museum also began its first major restoration project of Hawaiian Hall in July.

Brown took the helm of the museum in the midst of a dispute over the disposition of 83 Hawaiian artifacts plundered a century ago from burial caves in Kawaihae. Disagreements led first to upheaval among museum staff, and Brown found himself vilified by supporters of the nonprofit group wanting to rebury the objects, Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei.

The controversy came to a boil when the hui took the objects on a loan and reburied them; it has culminated in a federal lawsuit seeking to restart the legal process of returning ownership of the items to a Native Hawaiian organization.

"It has been an honor and pleasure to have led Bishop Museum for the last five years," Brown said in a written statement. "There were challenges along the way, but with the support of the board of directors and the work of our highly qualified staff, the museum is now much stronger, and headed for a great future."

In a memo to Bishop Museum staff, Brown said a key reason for taking the new job is to be closer to his family. Brown said his wife, Mary, is a lawyer who works for the State Department who moved back to Washington, D.C., last spring. Brown said his two daughters also are on the Mainland.

Bishop Museum has begun a search for his successor.

Brown graduated from the University of Hawai'i in 1973 with a doctorate in zoology. His work prior to the Bishop Museum includes serving as science adviser to U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in the Clinton administration.