Ex-mayor stays busy as museum CEO, volunteer
Dick Hackett, CEO of The Children’s Museum of Memphis, is about to get busier, since the museum recently received its largest donation ever.
Memphians Katherine and John Dobbs Jr. have pledged to fund a capital project at the museum every year for the next decade.
Mayor of Memphis between 1982 and 1992, Hackett, 62, now lives in his retirement home, a farm in Desoto County. But he has no plans to retire.
He is at the museum seven days a week and spends free time volunteering with the sheriff’s office in Desoto County.
My wife of 32 years, Kathy, and I have three children: a son, 29, a daughter, 27, and a son, 24, as well as two granddaughters both under 1. We also have a Labradoodle, Bearbear, and a Westie, Annie.
and yard work.
Fishing, gardening
I wear a St. Jude medal. He is the patron saint of hopeless causes, and being human I often consider myself a hopeless cause.
I was working in Mississippi, living out of a FEMA trailer, helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina when I received a call by the museum’s board of trustees. The museum had some challenges and needed a new CEO. When I got home, my daughter showed me a picture of her as a little girl, going through the Kroger (grocery exhibit) at the museum. I thought, if that stuck with her all these years, how many more memories could be made for other children? Discussions are still under way with the Dobbs family to decide what exhibits to fund.
I ultimately hope what the Dobbses have done will encourage someone else to pick up another dream of ours. We’d like to expand our building in the back for our older children. Maybe science and technology for kids 11 through high school.
A lot of growth and ranked among the top