Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 14, 1993 TAG: 9308230290
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
True to stereotype, Schutz grew up with a slide rule in his belt and a pencil in his pocket. He was a naturalist and a basement chemist, with a boyish love for bugs and rocks. Growing up in Baltimore, Md., his were among the best science-fair projects in his class.
It's not much of a surprise, then, that Schutz grew up to become the director of the Science Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke's Center in the Square. But it's probably most befitting that in his work with the museum, he marries his fascination for science to his skills for marketing and making money, too.
For Schutz, it boils down to: ``Think like a business, and grow while educating.''
He came to the Roanoke Valley in March from a self-started consulting firm in Charlottesville, where he advised manufacturing and service corporations on a host of business concerns. But as much as he enjoyed his successes in the private sector, Schutz craved the opportunity to work with a community and give it something to be proud of - as he did in Baltimore years before.
After his graduation from Pennsylvania's Bucknell University in 1976, Schutz became a teacher. For two years he taught biology to inner-city Baltimore seventh-graders who were reading on a third-grade level. "It was rewarding, but so very demanding. I knew I was going to burn out."
He did. But then came the "luckiest break of my career," when he learned the Baltimore Zoo was looking for a science teacher who had experience teaching inner-city kids. He landed the job in 1978, and spent four years as the zoo's teacher-in-residence and program director, while attending Johns Hopkins University and earning a master of science degree in education.
In '82 Schutz moved out of teaching to become the zoo's membership director, and two years later its director of marketing and development. By the time he left the Baltimore Zoo four years later, he had boosted attendance from 170,000 a year to 600,000, and helped raise $19 million in public and private funds for the zoo's first capital campaign for new exhibits.
Though Schutz had been bitten "by the museum bug" during his stay at the zoo, he was lured away by a chance to try his hand at the private sector. He moved to Charlottesville to begin working on an MBA at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. In 1990, his third degree in hand, he established Bentley Consulting Inc. in Charlottesville, where he was president.
"When I got to Charlottesville, I thought this was just the most beautiful place in the world. It was only after I left the hubbub of the city that I realized how draining it could be."
The Roanoke museum's location was a plus in his decision to accept the job. But what really attracted Schutz was the opportunity to take a museum that had stabilized itself during the recent recession and turn it into a growing institution adapted to the future.
Now settled in the Star City, the unmarried Schutz has already picked out his favorite lunch spots downtown and can still appreciate country life from his home at the foot of Bent Mountain.
His dogs can appreciate it, too, though Roanoke's pre-summertime temperatures are slowing them down a bit, Schutz says. Since he first entered graduate school, Schutz's canine best friend has been Mackenzie, an 11-year-old Newfoundland raised from puppyhood. He also raised three other Newfoundlands - Hanna and Frankie, 3, and Elvis, 1.
His biggest challenge, Schutz says, is learning what state-of-the-art is for science museums today. The Roanoke museum has had the same exhibits on its fourth floor for 10 years, he says. "What was state-of-the-art then is out of date now."
Schutz formed a benchmark committee to scope out other science museums. He says the Roanoke museum can learn from others' successes and failures. Schutz hopes the museum can first catch up to the successful ones, and then become a leader in the museum community, "so that other museum professionals can start coming here to copy our museum."
For now, though, the Roanoke museum will adopt what appears to be the wave of the future - high-tech exhibits. Already, the museum sponsors night hikes, providing participants with night-vision goggles made locally by ITT. And, Schutz says, the staff is looking at equipment such as gravity chambers and flight simulators - "the kind of splash in a museum that will bring kids in, a combination of entertainment and learning."
As with all the nonprofit arts and educational organizations in the valley, the science museum has felt the pinch of budget constraints in recent years. But Schutz isn't fearful that revenue will be hard to find. He says the museum will continue to raise money through developing membership but will become more aggressive in marketing itself with good promotions aimed at children, its target population.
Of course, the museum hopes to attract the child in adults as well - especially those who never were ``science nerds'' growing up.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB