Perrenoud resigns as museum director

Bill Perrenoud has resigned as executive director of the Jasper County Historical Museum.

The Jasper County resident of 45 years announced his resignation nearly a month ago and has since moved away to Cedar Rapids to live closer to his daughter. By the time he took over the duties of past director Joe Otto in fall 2018, Perrenoud’s wife, Linda, had already dedicated countless hours of her time to the museum, eventually serving as secretary.

However, Linda Perrenoud died about five months after he accepted the job at the museum. Her death, Bill Perrenoud said, was probably the biggest factor to him leaving the Jasper County Historical Museum, saying that she was “a very important person” there and had written several grants to keep the facility afloat. Perrenoud sought the directorial position so he and Linda could be a team.

“When I lost her, the wind went out of my sails,” Perrenoud said. “Then the longer I was there it became a little bit more apparent that there’s always going to be these reminders of her around. I’d pull out grants that we had written before. I’d see her name when I was looking at old minutes. Every day I would see her several times and it just made it very difficult.”

Perrenoud is confident the museum’s staff and board members will find another candidate and is willing help in any way he can. Although he has left the museum, he still wants to see it succeed, which is why he pitched the establishment of an official visitors center inside the museum to the Newton City Council a few months ago.

“I enjoyed the people that I got to meet and the people that I worked with,” Perrenoud said. “There are some very hard working board members who don’t get recognized. But I just didn’t feel like I could continue on with it for what they were needing. The museum is a special place that we have and I hope people will support it. It’s a hidden treasure. There’s no doubt about it.”

Jack Streeter, board president of the Jasper County Historical Society, told Newton Daily News the museum is looking to fill Perrenoud’s position in the near future but also wants to alter the executive director to a part-time job. This would help offset costs for the museum, which has reported a steadily declining attendance in recent years.

“It’s been tough for us,” Streeter said. “Of course it’s been tough financially, too. We’ve started to try and develop a couple new exhibits, and one is going awful slow. We’re running into all kinds of problems developing that exhibit about the Maytag family’s activities in Newton other than washing machines.”

The Jasper County Historical Museum will close its doors for the season by Sept. 30. However, museum staff will still be working onsite and can prepare the exhibits by request. The museum will open its regular hours again by April 1, 2020. This past year marked the 40-year anniversary of the museum.

Streeter said, “That went over pretty good. And we continue to have our Brown Bag (Lunch and Learn) sessions, and they’re good and successful and well-attended. We had that and then we participated in the Rocky Marciano (memorial). We had the museum open and some extra guests had come through that day.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com