Today I close my career of public service which began on a part-time basis
in 1957. I thought I would briefly share my thoughts at this moment with
you.
It is a very difficult time to work in the heritage field. For years now,
we - wherever we live and work - have continuously been asked to do more and
more with less and less. However, I must say that, when I began to work in
museums, I was awestruck by how much museum people, working ridiculously
long hours, for niggardly pay and little institutional thanks, accomplished
so very much. Today, I am just as impressed. What an incredible bunch of
people to work with and how successfully you have coped with the
ever-tightening corporate belt!
We at the War Museum have been very fortunate in recent years, as it looks
like we finally may get a new museum. But even if we don't, we have a Chief
Operating Officer (and acting CEO) who has worked wonders to get us more
funding and vastly improved central services. However, few museums have been
so fortunate.
We in museums and historic sites, are like the soldiers in what is surely
one of the greatest classics of war literature in English - or any other
language - Shakespeare's HENRY V:
"Let me speak proudly. Tell the Constable
We are but warriors for the working day.
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirched
With rainy marches in the painful field,
And time has worn us into slovenry.
But, by the Mass, our hearts are in the trim."
and so it is with all of you.
Thank you for all the help and support you have given me in so many ways,
and I hope I have been able to return some of it. Over the past few weeks, I
have received messages conveying best wishes on my retirement from Russia,
Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Australia,
New Zealand, the USA and across Canada and I am deeply grateful - and
equally humbled by them all.
But I will not really be gone. As soon as John Chadwick hooks me onto
MUSEUM-L from home, I will be back in touch, as a consultant to the heritage
community. You can reach me at: [log in to unmask]
Thanks for everything and my best wishes for continued success in the
future!
Harry
Harry Needham
Canadian War Museum
[log in to unmask]
(819) 776-8612 FAX: (819) 776-8623
HOME:
[log in to unmask]
(613) 831-1068 FAX (613) 831-9412
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