State Peers to Honor County Museum’s Retiring Director

For Ed Robings, respecting the past is both a job description and an avocation.

Today, Robings’ own past as director of the Ventura County Museum of History and Art will be honored by the state’s museum managers.

The 70-year-old Oxnard resident, who is set to retire Sept. 30, said the award for leadership and innovation from the California Assn. of Museums will be the highlight of a second career launched after 35 years as a community college educator and administrator.

“It’s always very, very nice to be recognized by colleagues and peers,” said Robings, who will receive the award today at the association’s annual conference in San Pedro.

He will join the ranks of award recipients such as the J. Paul Getty Museum, James Irvine Foundation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s board of directors and PBS-TV producer Huell Howser.

“I think it’s nice to know you don’t have to be as well-known as Huell Howser or as wealthy as the James Irvine Foundation or as famous as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum to win it,” Robings said.

Robings’ longtime friends and colleagues say his leadership has lifted the Ventura museum to national prominence.

“Ed has been in charge for a watershed period and we have become quite another kind of museum since he was director,” said Charles Johnson, librarian and associate director at the museum, which receives about 70,000 visitors a year.

“We were a growing, small museum,” he said. “Now we are a growing, medium-sized museum. Our operating budget has doubled, so has the staff size.”

The award--known as the CAMMY--recognizes Robings’ contributions to cultural tourism and his leadership on the state association’s board of directors, said Teri Knoll, executive coordinator of the organization.

“Ed was chosen for the CAMMY award for his outstanding leadership in the museum community,” Knoll said. “Not only for what he has done for his own particular museum, which is excellent, but also what he has done for the greater community.”

As a member of the Ventura and Oxnard visitor and convention bureaus, Robings formed a cultural tourism group about 2 1/2 years ago.

The museum completed a tourism study last week that will be used to develop a regional marketing plan and design a Web page linking tourist destinations throughout the county.

“He is a very inclusive person and brings attention to the whole field,” Johnson said. “He’s constantly connecting people from various fields. He is a bridge of different elements in the museum and visitor world.”

As a member of the association’s board of directors, Robings said one of his best accomplishments was creation of a scholarship program that enables young museum professionals to attend the annual conference.

The award is the latest addition to Robings’ mantel, joining a host of others from the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Collaborative and the Los Angeles Red Cross.

Robings will be joined by his wife, who is a docent at the museum, and his three grown children at today’s awards ceremony.

He said said he will miss working at the museum when he retires, but will continue helping the museum community.

“I figure 10 years [as director] and age 70 is a good combination for my re-retirement,” he said.