Volunteer Spotlight: Maureen Bryant’s half-century of service

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” – Muhammad Ali

Fifty years ago, Maureen Bryant was still relatively new to Washington, DC. Originally from Washington state, she had relocated here three years prior when she accepted a job with a small federal agency that at the time was building a library of law documents related to tariffs and international trade. In those first years, she completed her undergraduate degree and successfully pursued a master’s degree in library science.

Maureen Bryant at the Castle call center desk. (Photo courtesy Michael Rubin)

It was also in 1975 that Maureen started one of the most interesting adventures one can undertake in DC. She became a Smithsonian volunteer! A self-avowed “people-person,” Maureen’s long list of volunteer assignments have all involved directly working with and assisting visitors and the public. One of her early assignments was at the National Air and Space Museum, which like Maureen, was a new fixture on the National Mall in the mid-1970s.

Since volunteers spend so much time interacting with visitors, they are often in a position to overhear conversations or witness first-hand reactions to exhibitions and artifacts. Maureen recalls overhearing a young man at the Air and Space Museum explain earnestly to his girlfriend that the only reason he hadn’t become an astronaut himself was that he was “too tall to fit in a spacesuit.”  Maureen did not show him up in front of his date, but for the record, Jim Wetherbee–the tallest astronaut to fly in space–is a substantial 6’4″.

Maureen also fondly recalls her days volunteering at the National Museum of American History. She was posted at the information desk on the Mall side of the building. At that time, the Star-Spangled Banner, which was hung vertically in the museum’s main hall provided a dramatic backdrop for the Information Desk. Because of its delicate condition, the flag was covered most of the time, but twice each hour (at the top of the hour and at the half-hour) the bustle in the hall slowed as the banner’s covering was lowered and visitors could view the storied flag while listening to a rendition of the National Anthem.

Maureen also volunteered at the National Museum of Natural History, but she eventually found her forever home at the Smithsonian Castle. She started off at the information desk and leading tours, but after she retired, she also began volunteering in the Call Center where she remains a valued member of the team to this day.

If you are still smiling about the would-be astronaut, it was while working at the Castle that Maureen encountered a visitor who was quite perturbed that there was no American embassy in Washington, D.C. All efforts to explain why an American embassy in the American capital would be unnecessary failed. Oh well. At least she was never asked how to find the food court at the “National Mall.”

Fifty years–half a century of service. Few people spend 50 years working at their careers, and far, far fewer would devote so much of their lives to the selfless, unpaid work of a volunteer, but Maureen has no intention of slowing down. Over the years, she has watched new museums open and seen how new tools and resources have enhanced the way volunteers interact with visitors.

And, by the way, Maureen also spends a couple of days a week volunteering at a local food pantry.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Maureen!