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Life Story: Dick Leerhoff

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- You may have never met Dick Leerhoff, but odds are you've seen his work. He was a senior exhibit designer at the Science Museum of Minnesota for decades.

He helped create many of the displays that educated and entertained visitors. Those who knew him say Dick was a mentor and a friend to many of his co-workers.

You can't walk through the Science Museum of Minnesota without coming into contact with something Leerhoff had a hand in creating. As a senior exhibit designer, he made decisions about furniture, photographs, colors, lighting and the way items within an exhibit are arranged.

J. Newlin is the museum's director of physical sciences and engineering.

"He is sprinkled through the whole building. His legacy is part physical but is also very mental," Newlin said.

His co-workers say Dick had a gift for being able to put himself in visitors' shoes. He focused on making exhibits easy to move through, easy to understand and fun.

Patrick Hamilton worked with Dick for more than 30 years on environmental projects.

"For example, the bears exhibit, which had a lot of adult content, but also had a floor to ceiling Teddy Bear. At the time, I think it was the world's largest Teddy Bear," Hamilton said.

Dick designed many of the museum's traveling exhibits, including the controversial Wolves and Humans exhibit in the 1980s.

"It actually won the American Association of Museums' top exhibits in the last century," said Paul Martin, a senior vice president at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Martin says Dick also designed the race exhibit that traveled to 56 other museums before returning to St. Paul a few months ago.

"He had a very simple, straightforward style, and the thing that was great about Dick is that he understood visitors. He watched people and how they actually reacted to exhibits and different types of design. And really made stuff very accessible," Martin said.

His colleagues say he was known to sit quietly in meetings, listening and observing.

"But I was always wondering, 'What's Dick thinking? What's Dick thinking?'" project leader Cari Dwyer said. "Because what Dick is thinking is going to help us move to where we want to go."

A world traveler, a fan of music and books, Dick found ways to share his knowledge with wit. At his retirement party in 2011, Dick took time to explain the difference between the colors Chartreuse and Puce.

"Over the years I've noticed there is a misuse of two colors. And I don't want anyone who's here to ever do this again," Leerhoff said in a video recording of his remarks.

"So his legacy goes on and on," Martin said.

Dick Leerhoff was 71 years old when he died in December.

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