Jackie Lewin \u201966 had been immersed in St. Joseph history for more than four decades when she retired as executive director of the St. Joseph Museums this past spring.<\/p>\n
Her degree from the Missouri Western Junior College took her to Northwest Missouri State University, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Education with a political science major and a history minor, and a Master of Science in History with an emphasis in American History. While pursuing a teaching career, Lewin started working part-time at the St. Joseph Museums and found her calling.<\/p>\n
She has been with the museums since 1973 and has served as executive director since 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel really fortunate in that I\u2019ve had a career that I really liked,\u201d she said. \u201cA museum is a place where people are learning all the time, and it\u2019s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her proudest accomplishments include her role in the development and management of the Pony Express National Museum, which opened in 1993; the re-accreditation with the American Association of Museums and serving as the director when St. Joseph Museums celebrated its 80th<\/sup> anniversary in 2007.<\/p>\n Lewin said she is also pleased with the museums\u2019 relationship with Missouri Western, as many partnerships have developed between the two over the years.<\/p>\n The University\u2019s academic departments have always been involved in the museums\u2019 Super Science Saturday from its beginning, and since 2011, the annual event has been held in Remington and Agenstein halls on campus. Additionally, new students spend a day volunteering at the museums as part of the University\u2019s Griffon Edge orientation each year.<\/p>\n The museums have also provided internship opportunities for students in history, graphic design, education and recreation fields. And last year, Jeremy Lyons \u201914 created a video and website for the Black Archives Museum as part of his master\u2019s thesis at Missouri Western.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great source of people with talent and skills, and it gives us an opportunity to show students the museum field,\u201d she said of the internships. \u201cMissouri Western has helped us in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewin\u2019s love of history won\u2019t stop with her retirement, she says. She has a book project in the works and plans to organize correspondence from her father when he was in World War II.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to miss it, but I\u2019m looking forward to new things.\u201d<\/p>\n In the beginning<\/b><\/p>\n The St. Joseph Museums and Missouri Western\u2019s connections date back to 1927, when Orrel Andrews, a professor at St. Joseph Junior College, and her students\u2019 Natural Science Club helped found a Children\u2019s Museum. That museum eventually became the St. Joseph Museum.<\/p>\n The following is an excerpt from the 1927 Griffon Yearbook about the Natural Science Club, which was formed in 1923: \u201cUndoubtedly, the most important phase of its work is that, under the inspiration and guidance of its able sponsor, Miss Orrel M. Andrews, it has laid the foundation for the future founding of a Children\u2019s Museum in St. Joseph. The nucleus of this project, consisting of various interesting and valuable biological collections at present belonging to the club, will be temporarily housed at the New City Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jackie Lewin \u201966 had been immersed in St. Joseph history for more than four decades when she retired as executive director of the St. Joseph Museums this past spring. Her degree from the Missouri Western Junior College took her to Northwest Missouri State University, where she received a Bachelor of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4293,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions\/4293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}