BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - This week, we mark the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Since 2005, our Coast Life has been defined by how we’ve bounced back from the storm.
The resilience is on display at the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, a place the museum’s executive director has poured her heart into for 37 years.
“There’s so many different pieces, and every piece in here I can tell a story about. It has a story and has people connected to it,” Robin Krohn David said.
Robin Krohn David has told those stories since 1988, when she started working at the museum just about a year after it first opened.
“Once you came to the museum, you started learning every year how much the maritime museum meant to the people on the Coast,” David said. “The friendship, love, and passion that everybody had just grew and made my heart even bigger. I wanted us to be the best we could be for the people.”
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As executive director, Robin guided the operation of the now iconic Biloxi Schooners, launched the Sea-N-Sail Adventure Camp, giving generations authentic experiences on the water.
Then Hurricane Katrina hit.
“There were huge pine trees that came through the waves and battered the walls down,” David said.
The museum, like so much else, was destroyed, but the storm didn’t stop Robin’s mission. While operating out of temporary spaces, the staff still put on the Sea-N-Sail Camp in the summer after Katrina.
“We made it happen. We wanted the children to have some normalcy, so we didn’t want them to miss camp,” David said.
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For years following the storm, Robin led the push for the museum to be rebuilt.
“It was a battle.”
“Why did you take it on?” WLOX anchor Hugh Keeton asked.
“Everywhere I went after Katrina, it didn’t matter where I was, people said, ‘You are going to get the museum back, you are going to rebuild, correct?’ I couldn’t let these people down; this is their history and heritage. If I stepped out of the picture, this would never happen. I knew I had the energy, and I knew I could get it done with everyone else’s help.”
She got it done. Following a debate over where the museum should be rebuilt, the construction started at the original location on Point Cadet. In 2014, nine years after the hurricane, the sparkling new 19,000 square foot building opened to the public.
With the museum on solid footing, Robin is stepping away and retiring next month.
She’s turning the leadership role over to Brandon Boudreaux, who started his career with the museum working as a deck hand while he was still a teenager. He also played a key role in the recovery of vessels in 2005, including the schooners.
“I could hear Brandon on a boat saying, ‘Robin, is that you?’ I said, Brandon, is that you? How are the schooners? We had already been here to the museum and saw that it was destroyed, he had already checked on them and said they were safe. I said, Thank God, because the museum is not.”
Even though Robin is leaving her official capacity, she will continue spreading the message of what the maritime and seafood industry means to her home.
“I’m not going away; I will be a great volunteer. This is my heart, my passion. It shows the love that is here for our history and heritage. We’re preserving it for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren down the road, that’s what makes it so special for me.”
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Robin says she will continue working to raise money for a new museum expansion and will still be on the job overseeing the 40th annual drawdown fundraiser on September 20.
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