Stephen C. White, chief executive of Mystic Seaport, announced Tuesday he plans to retire after leading the maritime museum for a decade.
White said he will continue as CEO until a search committee hires his successor next year.
“I came here with the goal of guiding the institution to reimagine the interchange between maritime heritage and broader contemporary culture,” White said in a statement. “I’m proud of all we have achieved in the last decade and that the Museum is poised to achieve more great things as it enters its 90th year in 2020.”
Mystic Seaport officials say White played a key role in establishing the museum as one of the nation’s top maritime heritage communities while also adapting the organization for the 21st century.
Under White’s leadership, Mystic Seaport restored and sailed the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan on its 38th voyage in 2014.
It also reconfigured its north campus into a new exhibition hall called the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle, and built a new 14,000-square-foot Thompson Exhibition Building with help from a fundraising campaign that generated $6.6 million in donations.
During his tenure, White also served as president of the International Congress of Maritime Museums from 2015 to 2019. Former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy also named White Connecticut’s Tourism Leader of the Year in 2015.
Founded in 1929, Mystic Seaport says it’s Connecticut’s largest maritime museum with more than 2 million artifacts, including over 500 historic vessels and of the largest collections of maritime photography.
