Dakota Historical Society Loses Executive Director to Ramsey County

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The Dakota County Historical Society is looking for a new leader after losing Executive Director Chad Roberts to its counterpart in Ramsey County.

The Ramsey County Historical Society announced Roberts' hiring on March 6, via Facebook. Roberts follows in the footsteps of Priscilla Farnham, who retired in December of 2011 after 20 years in the position.

Roberts started as executive director of the Dakota County Historical Society in 2005. He led the organization through a tumultuous time in the organization's own history, which spans over seven decades. In spite of the recession years and subsequent budget cuts, Roberts and his staff were able to amp up fundraising, volunteer participation and patronage.

"Over the past eight years we have opened a successful historic house museum, increased public programming five-fold, engaged far more partners and volunteers, made tremendous improvements and additions to our collections, and we now reach an audience of 90,000 people annually," Roberts wrote to society friends, fans and employees during his departing post on March 12. "It has been an honor to work with each of you."

During his time in Dakota County, Roberts was also a prolific contributor to Patch. You can see all of his past articles on the Mendota Heights Patch.

The Dakota County Historical Society will be taking applications for executive director until April 26.

When called for comment, an employee at the Ramsey society said that Roberts would be out of the office until next week. Officials at DCHS deferred comment until granted approval by the non-profit's board president.