On Tue, Jun 25, 2024 at 4:54 PM Rick Bensene via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> > 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. > 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
