One of the personalities that helped shape the Royal Tyrrell Museum and indeed the shape of Drumheller over the last three decades has retired.
While Don Brinkman has decided to retire, the best place to find him will still be at the museum as he continues research on a few projects. Last week he was pouring over fish remains from microfossil sites. After 36 years it’s tough to get him out of the lab.
Brinkman began his career in 1982 before the Tyrrell opened. He was director of Preservation and Research.
“The money for the museum was committed in late 1981, and the first director David Baird was hired in December of that year, so 1982 was when things officially got rolling,” he tells the Mail. I started in the fall.”
Some of the original researchers with him in those early days included Dave Eberth, Phil Currie, and Dennis Braman. He said the goal in the early days was to create a world-class Museum and they met that achievement.
“There was a three year building period, starting with a small core collection, but there was no design for the building, there was no design for the exhibits. Specimens had to be prepared and mounted. Looking back at it now, it was very ambitious to do that amount of work in that short of time,” he said.
“We were all very young so it was all new to us. For most of us, it was the first permanent job we had. We were familiar with universities but not working in organizations like this,” said Brinkman, who, unlike his contemporaries, grew up in the area. “I knew what I was getting into moving to Drumheller.”
Since the creation of the museum, his career not only centred on the museum but his research. This has taken him all over Alberta, Canada, and the world. One of his many career highlights was an early trip as part of the Canada–China Dinosaur Project.
“That was putting us on the international stage in a way that is difficult to match. Partly because the way it was done was very high profile with public education built into the project. The exhibit, the book, and the film were all planned from the beginning,” he said. “That was a time when China was really opening up to the world, it was a very pivotal time for science in China, and being part of that was definitely a highlight.”
Today, Brinkman will still be toiling on his research at the museum.
“My position is sort of equivalent to an emeritus situation at a university. I have a space and support so I can carry on with research projects,” he said.
He is also busy in the community. He volunteers with the East Coulee School Museum, and many will recognize him as the fiddler in the local band Wayfaring Fiddlers. He is also planning to travel.
