Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center announces retirement plans of longtime executive director

Congratulations to KTM&HC Executive Director Hildegard Grob, who will retire in June 2026. Through her work at the museum, Grob has had a transformative impact on KTM&HC, Ridgefield, and the history community.

Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center (KTM&HC) recently announced that executive director Hildegard Grob will retire effective June 30, the end of the organization’s current fiscal year.

Since assuming this role in 2012, Grob has driven a sustained period of growth and reinvention that greatly expanded KTM&HC’s presence as a regional history museum and center of education. She oversaw a major capital campaign to reintegrate the property’s four-acre campus through the acquisition and establishment of a dedicated Visitor Center with a lobby, museum archives, and staff offices. Grob also managed KTM&HC’s transition from a largely volunteer-run organization to one led by professional staff.

Among her major accomplishments is the significant expansion of KTM&HC’s educational programming. Museum educators now engage with more than 2,000 students annually through on-site visits and classroom outreach that connects the site’s hundreds of years of history to the world around them, thereby fostering curiosity, critical thinking, and empathy.

Grob also led the organization’s multi-year reinterpretation efforts, creating fuller and more diverse visitor experiences that explore its many complicated layers, including the stories of residents and events that had never been told before. This work was funded by KTM&HC’s first-ever grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH).

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“Hildi’s tireless commitment to making Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center a place where people of all ages can come to learn and think critically about how past events can inform future decisions is a hallmark of her tenure as executive director,” said David Yaun, president of KTM&HC’s board of directors. “Her determination to restore and preserve the five historic buildings on our property has resulted in a beautiful and accessible campus that can be enjoyed by all who visit. As we approach our 60^th anniversary as a preservation society later this year, Hildi’s impact on the Museum and the surrounding community remains tremendous and will be widely celebrated.”

“It has been an absolute honor and privilege to lead KTM&HC into the future and position it as a place where history can rightfully serve as the lens for making sense of the world by providing perspective on how we got to where we are today and what kind of world we want to live in tomorrow,” Grob said. “Over my tenure I have had the pleasure of working with an incredible number of amazing people, including my talented staff, members of the board, donors, volunteers, and my colleagues from across the arts and cultural sector in town and beyond. It takes a village to create anything of lasting nature, and the Ridgefield community has been tremendously supportive of our vision for KTM&HC as a place of lasting impact for teaching the lessons of history.”

Among other accomplishments, during Grob’s tenure the site’s historic Garden House and walled garden became a premiere destination for weddings and special events, establishing KTM&HC as a significant economic driver for the town and region. More recently, she helped KTM&HC and the town of Ridgefield create some of the state’s most robust America 250 programming to engage the community in celebrating and commemorating the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, including a successful kick-off event on July 4, 2025 that brought together nearly 1,500 local residents.

Upon retirement, Grob plans to stay involved with KTM&HC, supporting development and fundraising initiatives related to the organization’s 60^th anniversary celebration.

KTM&HC’s board of directors will announce search plans for a new executive director shortly.

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Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center announces retirement plans of longtime executive director