BOWERS MUSEUM DIRECTOR PLANS TO QUIT IN JUNE

William Lee, director of Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, will resign his post June 30 to spend more time with his family and possibly return to university work, Lee said in a phone interview Thursday.

“I have several opportunities in mind,” Lee said, but declined to reveal them.

At the Nov. 25 meeting of the Santa Ana City Council, the council authorized a new $41,000-a-year assistant director position at Bowers, but Lee denied this was a factor in his decision to leave his $51,000-a-year job. “I’ve been asking for someone in that post for some time,” he said. “This museum needs both a strong director and a strong assistant director.”

Lee emphasized that the move was strictly for personal reasons and that neither the many changes nor problems the Bowers has faced during his 3 1/2-year-tenure were behind his decision to leave.

Museum officials and the city council have struggled for years with the Bowers Museum Foundation, an organizational base for volunteers, over the issue of control of the city-owned museum.