Space museum founder charged with theft
This news shocked me. Max Ary, co-founder of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, has been indicted on charges of theft and fraud.
For those that don’t know, I went to space camp at the Cosmosphere back in ‘91 and had been visiting the place with my family as far back as I can remember, so I’ve met Max Ary. Once my grandmother and I were even fortunate enough to sneak into a tour group he was showing around the place. I say fortunate because the man knew all the stories you haven’t heard and truly loved the space program. I’ve been to all sorts of museums, state parks, national parks and so on, but never had any tour stick with me the way that one has.
That doesn’t mean it’s not possible that he is guilty. It’s possible, but if ever I was inclined to believe in someone being innocent until proven guilty, this case is the the time. If he is guilty, his career will of course be over and what he did is a terrible crime, but his accomplishments should not be forgotten.
He took a planetarium in a small Kansas town and turned it into a museum which covers, the last time I saw it at least, the history of rocketry from early experiments through Germany’s wartime advances to Sputnik to the Apollo missions with bits of what came after. Back in ‘86 or ‘87 he got the Soviet Union to donate the spacesuit worn by the first female cosmonaut. Last time I was there they also had the sputnik statue that Kruschev kept on his desk along with more Soviet space artifacts than any other museum outside of Russia. All of those pieces sat alongside an amazing array of American memorabilia, showing a clear evidentiary history of the space race. Doing a quick search, I discovered this site which briefly describes the Cosmosphere’s restoration of the Apollo 13 command module and Gus Grissom’s Mercury capsule.
I could go on for a while effusing about the great work that Max Ary did, but instead I’m going to give you this short ‘94 bio from the Wings Over Kansas Kansas Governors Aviation Honor Awards page:
Max Ary once dreamed of a facility in which the history and future of space exploration would be available to the people of the Midwest, and that with such a facility he could share his fascination and love for the grand adventure of space exploration.
Mr. Ary began his professional career in 1968 as a student assistant at the Hutchinson Planetarium. While there, he developed his lifelong interest in the areas of astronomy and the space sciences. Following graduation from college, he was selected as the Director of the Noble Planetarium becoming, at age 21, the youngest person to direct one of the nation’s primary planetarium facilities.
In 1976, Mr Ary returned to Kansas for the purpose of developing the first comprehensive space museum to be built in the central United States - the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center. The facility houses one of the largest collections of American space artifacts in existence, and maintains the only permanent space artifact restoration center in the world.
Mr. Ary has been recognized as one of America’s leading experts in the history of manned spaceflight, one of the foremost authorities in space artifact research, preservation, restoration, and public education development, and has become a nationally known speaker on America’s space program. He has acted as a consultant to NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, as an educational consultant to foreign governments and as a technical consultant to numerous television and movie producers. He has also played a major role in the design and development of eight additional space museums throughout Europe, Asia and North America.
Among his many awards, Mr. Ary has received the Sullivan Medal for Outstanding Science Education. The Triebech Trophy for exhibit design, the National Engineering Achievement Award. He has served on the Board of Directors of various organizations and currently serves as President of the International Space Theater Consortium.
I, too, went to the KSCS from 1995 to 1997. I was a volunteer working the weekends to assist Boy Scouts with understanding rocketry, building and launching a model rocket. I did work on Dr. Goddard’s Lab, the planetarium, and the museum itself. I helped with the teardown and securing of the museum artifacts from the old museum to the new museum. I helped build the Space Shuttle simulator and assisted on fixing the old Link Trainer that I called (The Vomit Cube).
I, too, am very suprised that Max Ary would do such a thing, but then I got to know him better than you in my work there. There was times then that he would be downstairs with us near the storage area of non-shown pieces and I would here him say that with-in these walls was a gold mine of treasure. He seemed very proud, maybe too proud, of his collection. I think he was starting down the path of securing for a good retirement. I also got the impression in 1997 that he was not happy with the way he was not getting what he felt was his worth at the KSCS. So to answer your question “If he could do this?”, yes, I think he did!
By the way, who are you? I ran into this article through a thread from a search on Max Ary.
I JUS TWNATED TO THANK YOU FOR SUCH A GREAT ARTCILE ON A MAN I TO SEE AS A TRUE SPIRIT FOR THE SPACE PROGRAM HISTORY. I HAVE WORKED FOR MAX ARY FOR 2 YEARS NOW, HAVING THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN AMAZING HISTORICAL INFORMATION I WOULD NOT HAVE GAINED OTHERWISE. SO THANKS YOU TO BELIEVERS LIKE MAX ARY.
[...] Quite a while back I wrote about Max Ary, co-founder and former president of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center being indicted on 17 counts of fraud, theft, and money laundering. [...]