Slice of Rye
Jim Pelgrift on Discovering the Good Life

– By Dolores Eyler –

It took Jim Pelgrift much of his adult life to understand the simple mantra of his childhood: “Use your abilities as best you can.”
The fifth of seven children, Pelgrift, now 50, said he interpreted that family goal to mean get into the best schools, get the highest paying job, and get promoted as fast and far as he could.
“My parents were incredibly down-to-earth folk. They meant it in the broadest sense possible, to leave the world a better place. But when I was growing up, I didn’t quite get it. I wish my mother were alive to circle back with me and know I finally understand. She meant to do good.”
A few months ago, Pelgrift was named president of the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport, Conn., a teaching museum that educates over 67,000 local kids a year via hands-on science workshops. Primarily, Discovery serves the public school children of Bridgeport, the largest city in Connecticut, with its fair share of urban ills. The city’s population has dropped every decade in the last half century and according to the last national census, almost 20 percent of its population is below the poverty level.
But Pelgrift is bullish on his new job and what it can mean to the children of Bridgeport. “I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for, a home that is what I am about. We’re called a museum but two-thirds of our program is devoted to formal education. “We are an Exploratorium, very hands-on, as opposed to book learning.”
Begun as an art and science museum 50 years ago, the museum almost closed its doors in 2002, fractured by its dual goal as well as its financial state. “The art is now gone,” Pelgrift said. “We are dedicated to education and science and our mission is to inspire. You almost can’t use that word enough.”
Fifteen permanent staff members and a host of part-time teachers, some from Bridgeport’s nearby universities, Sacred Heart, Bridgeport, and Fairfield, staff the multitude of programs offered by the museum, covering pre-school through adult. Two-thirds of the classes are offered on site, while the rest are taught in area schools. An 8-foot yellow submarine traveling exhibit, planetarium, learning labs, and a Challenger Learning Center, complete with a space station simulator, mission control operation, and NASA training materials, are all featured.
“Teachers love working here,” Pelgrift said. “They can be creative and experimental, not just preparing kids for a test. We are offering a very different paradigm of science. It’s not the rational, it is the experimental, creative.”
Located on a 90-acre parcel of land at 4450 Park Avenue, off exit 47 of the Merritt Parkway, the museum has plans to open a nature center as well as a K through 8 public magnet school focused on science, scheduled for 2010.
“The history of this museum has sort of paralleled my own life. It’s been through a lot and I’m not going to let it fail. And the strength that has come out of its trouble is magic.”
Following what he considered important life goals, Pelgrift graduated from The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Conn., attended Harvard, and went to work for Morgan Stanley. Applying to graduate business school a few years later, he was “dinged,” shocked he didn’t get into either Stanford or Harvard. “It was a seminal moment,” Pelgrift said. “I flew out to Stanford and talked my way into the admissions office, winning a promise to be admitted the next year if I did all I said I would. What an audacious thing to do!”
Graduating from Stanford and returning to Morgan Stanley, Pelgrift eventually achieved his goal of managing director, heading Emerging Market Debt Capital Markets.
“I had a rocket career, got married, had three kids, friends, traveled. I had a rich life. But at age 39 I asked myself, ‘Now, what?’ My marriage was in tough shape. My wife, Sara, was unhappy. My kids were miserable. I was drinking too much, my health was bad, and I was depressed.”
Asking for a sabbatical, Pelgrift took six months off, only to go to work for another company, ABN AMRO Inc., building their fixed income business. Four weeks after he started, his mentor and friend in the company died in an accident.
“I served out my contract but I finally realized my life was empty,” Pelgrift said. So he quit, suddenly finding himself a free man, able to do whatever he wanted. He became a consummate volunteer, giving time to Rye Presbyterian Church, the Rye Nature Center, the Bruce Museum and starting his own investment advisory company. “It was all fun, but something was still missing,” he said. “I realized nothing I was doing was my core. I wanted to get into education.”
Applying for headmaster at a prep school in Connecticut, Pelgrift didn’t get the job, but at the same time was being courted to lead the Discovery Museum, a position he took last December.

“Finally, my life — my family, my friends, my job — is in synchronicity. This humble little museum and the simple activities of inspiring young people in science may seem a long way from billion dollar deals in global bond markets, but the intimacy of the human connections and the transforming impact of our work here are more thrilling than anything I ever accomplished in the financial world.”