25 Jun
2024
25 Jun
'24
5:06 p.m.
On Tue, Jun 25, 2024 at 4:54 PM Rick Bensene via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I'm compelled to look at this from a perspective that I believe is
completely objective (yell at me if you think otherwise):
If I was worth $20 BILLION and had the passion and goals that were
expressed to you by Mr. Allen, I'd have immediately funded the museum with
a $100 million endowment, which would be relative pocket change to me, but
would guarantee the existence of the museum probably in perpetuity, even if
the endowment moneys weren't managed particularly skillfully. Note that
the Computer History Museum's endowment goal (at least back in 2005) was
$125 million. And that's to secure the world's largest computer history
archive, so $100M for the LCM would've effectively been perpetual.
That nothing was done to secure the museum and the collection during the
five years Mr. Allen remained alive until his demise is quite frankly
irresponsible (to be polite).
All this being said, god rest the soul of Paul Gardner Allen. He
accomplished a lot of good in his lifetime.
Sellam
Allen’s
estate, which has been managing and winding down his vast array
of holdings
since his death in 2018, confirmed to GeekWire
that the 12-year-old
museum is closed for
good.
I held out hope that somehow this would not be the end of this place.
Alas, it was not to be.
I had the occasion to have a nice informal chat with Mr. Allen about LCM
shortly after it opened. I got the clear impression that A) He was
absolutely devoted and passionate about this aspect of history, B) He
wanted as many people as possible to be able to experience this history
*hands-on*, and C) that he wanted it to be a lasting legacy of his
passion.
Of course, things can change along the way, and I know that the museum was
struggling with the rather enormous expenses of keeping all of the machines
up and running, as well as the expertise necessary to keep them that
way(even with some very gracious volunteers), not to mention all of the
administrative aspects of such an endeavor.