When he took over as president of the Adler Planetarium in 1991, Paul Knappenberger Jr. was charged with bringing outer space a little closer to the lakefront.
After more than 20 years in the post, Knappenberger on Wednesday announced his retirement, with his mission accomplished. Adler last year completed a $54 million fundraising campaign and attendance at the lakefront campus has grown by nearly 20 percent since 2005, Knappenberger said Wednesday.
“This is a great time for me, personally as well as for Adler to make the change,” said Knappenberger, 69, who will stay on as Adler’s president through the end of the year.
Adler will begin a nationwide search for a replacement, said Knappenberger. John Estey, chairman of Adler’s board of trustees, will lead the search.
While Knappenberger was president, the Adler developed and launched a plan to transform a rather staid planetarium to “a 21st century space science center,” the museum said in a release. The Adler also underwent a $40 million expansion including the 1999 opening of the Sky Pavilion.
Knappenberger noted that he may not be at the helm when Adler takes delivery ofNASA’sdecommissioned space shuttle flight simulator, a three-story structure that will require an addition to the planetarium.
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“I will have to leave that for the next person,” he said.
Bryan Cressey, who has been on the Adler Board of Trustees for 15 years, said Knappenberger excelled at both coming up with great ideas and recruiting donors so those ideas cold be carried out. Knappenberger also was able to attract top-notch researchers to work at Adler, Cressey said.
“People who bring their kids to the Adler today comment that it’s so much different than when (they) were kids,” Cressey said. “It’s so much larger today, so up-to-date and modern. Paul gets a lot of credit for that.”
Knappenberger, who has his doctorate in astronomy, moved to west suburban St. Charles when he took the Adler job in 1991 so city lights wouldn’t block his view of the night sky. He said he and his wife plan to move to their home in rural Virginia.
“We have good, dark skies out there,” he said.