Having spent 34 years of the museum’s 75-year existence running the show, he officially stepped down at 5pm on Tuesday, passing the baton to longtime staffer Jane Peasey, who has become the town’s first female museum director.
Mr Clarke, 67, was hired as the director in 1989, as a 33-year-old, tasked with giving it a "bit of oomph".
The museum opened in 1948 and early directors were instrumental in building new displays, some of which are still there. It moved, in 1955, to the former BNZ bank building before it "drifted along for a while".
"Then I came along and did all sorts of things."
From Invercargill, Mr Clarke had earlier graduated from the University of Otago with a history degree before spending several years doing "all sorts of jobs", then three years travelling.
In Queenstown, he worked as a builder and had a "little landscaping business" before he decided to return to his first love at the museum.
Over the past 34 years, he estimates he has raised about $5 million for the museum and $3m for the community, staged about 150 exhibitions, organised the education programme, research facility, helped the board buy the historic post office — the second-oldest operating post office in New Zealand — and in his spare time worked within heritage protection for Arrowtown’s buildings, and helped groups involved with the restoration of the Chinese Village and historic
jail.
He has also served as a Queenstown councillor and independent commissioner.
"It’s been busy — I’ve been flat out for 34 years."
He notes he’s technically broken the law by delaying retirement till now.
"I went to a dinner with [the late] Lex Perkins. He was a JP, and I signed on a serviette after a few drinks I was going to retire at 63.
"It was sitting on my fridge, signed by a JP, so I broke the law."
But there’s good reason for waiting another four years to pass the baton.
"We were in a situation where we needed all these things and I wanted to go out on a high note, rather than things left not done."
The biggest of the to-dos was the massive seismic strengthening project, which had been on the cards since 2014, but officially finished only a year ago.
Mr Clarke says seeing that project through to completion has been one of his biggest highlights, and the future looks bright for Ms Peasey, who has been with the museum 11 years, and her team.
Of his successor, Mr Clarke says the museum is in great hands.
"Jane will put her own mark on it — she’s really clever and well known in the community, and a good person."
Mr Clarke and his wife Wendy will do a bit of travelling and put more work into restoring a historic property at Ophir.
