![]() ![]() "That was his world - bringing order to what in his mind was chaos," Murphy said. Bridget Murphy said Maurer rescued her cookie business in the 1990s by creating spreadsheets to organize her fast-growing company, Koala Kookie, and track all of her orders. "He was always really good about recognizing other people."įriends said they also appreciated his generous spirit. "I think the reason Paul was such a good manager is that he didn't take credit for other people's contributions," Pohlman said. every Friday, where people brought snacks and bonded over music. And he had no problem swearing."Ĭo-workers said Maurer was a generous boss, building morale through weekly "rock and roll breaks" at 3 p.m. "Paul had an incredible skill set," said Cary Forss, the Science Museum's longtime lighting designer. Maurer also established the museum's Exhibit Products and Services business, which has built exhibits for more than 20 other science centers around the country, including the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and the California Science Center in Los Angeles. and Canada, starting with the Wolves and Humans exhibit. In 1985, he started a traveling program that ultimately allowed the museum to bring a dozen of its most popular exhibits to more than 90 other venues in the U.S. ![]() Maurer's influence extended far beyond Minnesota. He really thought about the end users of an exhibit." "Paul was just a terrific project leader," Schmit said. Schmit said Maurer's vision can still be seen in the permanent Sportsology lab, the Journey to Space exhibit and the popular Experiment Gallery, where visitors can create a tornado or conduct more than a dozen other experiments. Maurer was a big believer in interactive exhibits, designing and building rooms that would engage visitors in the nuts and bolts of science. We brought this idea that museums are experiences that are ultimately controlled by the audience." "I don't think we ever thought of the museum as a didactic exercise, where the job is to tell people a bunch of stuff. "At that point, almost the entire exhibits department was ex-theater people, and I think there is something about that that made the museum distinctive," Pohlman said. Don Pohlman, a longtime theater colleague, convinced Maurer to join him at the Science Museum in 1979. Maurer was working at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego when an earthquake threw him out of bed, convincing him to return to Minnesota. #Chimera lighting professionalA skilled woodworker, he began working on professional theater sets as a high school student, first at Chimera Theatre and later the Children's Theatre Company. "He started programs that really helped put the Science Museum on a national footing, and to become a leader among our fellow science centers." ![]() "Paul was not one to toot his own horn, but he had an outsized influence on the Science Museum," said Bette Schmit, the museum's director of experience planning and development. Paul Maurer liked to say that he pursued a degree in theater arts at the University of Minnesota because "everything else sounded too hard." But the veteran set builder and designer used those skills to bring a sense of drama to the Science Museum of Minnesota, where he was director of exhibits for almost 20 years. ![]()
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