Retiring Museum President Leaves Big Shoes To Fill

BREWSTER – Bob Dwyer has been the face of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster for the last 19 and a half years. Now, it’s time for a mirror image.

Dwyer has announced that he’ll be retiring at the end of the year, and a search is on for a new president and executive director. Dwyer will be hard to replace; over the years he has become synonymous with the museum and its vision, success, exceptional staff, stimulating exhibits and rousing educational programs.

The museum’s board of directors is now at work finding a replacement. The good news is there’s talent on Cape and afar.

“I’m turning 80 soon,” says Dwyer, who still has a bit of a reservoir of boyish looks along with the energy of an individual half his age. “It’s time for a younger generation to step forward at the museum, time to turn it over to someone new to expand on what we’ve been doing for the last 19 years.”
Asked how he felt about retirement, he says, “I haven’t given it much thought in that respect. It’s not humble pie. It’s just not thinking about it. Eyes always on the horizon.”

The museum leadership is big shoes for someone to step into. Now in its seventh decade, the museum overlooks the placid Stony Brook Valley and is surrounded by another 300 acres of conservation land, including historic Wing Island, site of one of the region’s earliest Paleo-Indian settlements dating back 8,000 years to the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene period.

Early on, late museum founder John Hay clearly understood the joys of observing the natural world through the eyes of a child, the child in all of us. Dwyer in his tenure has followed that vision. “We have worked persistently to be true to Hay’s vision. His words light the path of our future, which we have faithfully followed. The mission of John Hay endures.”

Board members and staff fully agree.

“Bob Dwyer will be remembered as the individual who saved the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History from earlier financial hard times,” says Ray Hebert, chair of the board of trustees. “I’ve worked closely with Bob for the last 15 years. It takes a wise person to form alliances in a community if one intends to succeed. Bob has done that.”

Persistence is the coin of Dwyer’s success. Said board member Jim Lahane, “A while back, I complimented Bob on his ability to stick with a project, no matter how complicated or difficult. To which he replied amusingly, ‘One needs to know the difference between me and a Rottweiler… a Rottweiler eventually lets go!’”

Offered Barbara Knoss, director of education and operations at the museum, “Bob is a friend, mentor and inspiration to many here. He’s willing to think outside the box and bring a variety of popular innovative exhibits, and activities to the museum.”

Notes board member John Flores, “Bob brought creativity, financial acumen, and pragmatism in his role as president. He will be sorely missed.”

Dwyer’s crowning achievement is overseeing the recent acquisition of the Thornton Burgess Society and Green Briar Nature Center off Route 6A in Sandwich, creating a Cape-wide path of nature centers and exhibits and a legacy of two of the nation’s finest nature writers, Thornton W. Burgess and John Hay.

A visionary, Dwyer, who ran a UMass Boston center for technology, innovation and education for 21 years, recently headed the museum in a groundbreaking direction for decades to come with a focus on biodiversity and biomimicry, the practice of emulating nature’s survival solutions to solve today’s human challenges. The museum has begun offering several biomimicry exhibits with hands-on activities for all ages, and has been highlighted on WCVB’s Chronicle.

In announcing this new direction, Dwyer said, quoting from biomimicry research: “Glimpse into biomimicry’s potential and you will discover remarkable inventions: like the evolution of the bullet train in Japan, adorned with a sleek, beak-shaped nose akin to the kingfisher bird — significantly reducing noise, enhancing efficiency, and conserving energy. Similarly, wind turbines, modeled after the fluid dynamics of a whale’s fin, also improve efficiency, reduce noise, and propel advancements across diverse applications such as hydroelectric turbines, irrigation pumps, ventilation systems, and others. Then there’s the butterfly with wings so black that they have no reflection or glare. Scientists believe these wings could lead to ultra-black synthetic materials, more effective sunscreens, and new paints and textiles.”

Other examples include how oyster-inspired filtration systems are being used to filter microplastics from water; how studying termite mounds may lead to low energy solutions for high-rise building HVAC needs; how the study of wave-devouring technology is inspired by whale tails, leading to advances in understanding the kinetic energy of waves to achieve ship propulsion without fuel; and how elephant trunks have led to what’s called soft robotics, creating solutions to help the disabled and to assist with heavy lifting.

Clearly, there is plenty for a new museum president and executive director in years to come to chew on and build on.

Greg O’Brien, a Cape Cod Museum of Natural History board member for more than 20 years, is a career journalist, an author, and script writer. He lives in the Stony Brook Valley section of Brewster with his wife Mary Catherine.