By Editorial Board Friday, March 16th, 2012

Here’s a note of appreciation to Karl Hutterer, who has officially announced that he will retire later this year as the head of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

During his 12-year tenure, the museum created the Ty Warner Sea Center at Stearns Wharf and embarked on dozens of innovations. More recently, the 96-year-old museum has been working on a new master plan that will guide the development of its Mission Creek campus in the 21st Century.

A search committee is working on recruiting a new director. But whoever takes over will be standing on the shoulders of a titan of the nonprofit world.