By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD –  The governor’s trying to infuse some credibility and leadership into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum by filling a board of directors and naming a high-profile chairman.

Ray LaHood, brought on just after the governor fired director Alan Lowe,6 says the reconstituted board must find a new director and maintain a bridge to the organization’s separate fund-raising arm. 

What makes the ideal director?

“I think, first of all, somebody who has been involved with museums and libraries, Number One,” LaHood, a Republican from Peoria, told WJBC News. “Number Two, somebody who loves Lincoln the way the people of Illinois do, and to carry on Lincoln’s legacy. That’s what the library and museum is all about. It’s about Lincoln! And about carrying on his legacy.”

LaHood says the calibre of people Pritzker has appointed to the board shows how serious he is about making the Lincoln museum and library the best it can be.

LaHood says since the museum opened, he has been too busy being a Congressman and then U.S. transportation secretary to follow the comings and goings of directors and whether the multi-million dollar stovepipe hat was really Lincoln’s.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].