The board of the Memphis Museums of Science & History (MoSH) has ended its "comprehensive national search"by naming a new director to lead the organization.
The board of trustees announced Sept. 14 that Jeff King — who has served as MoSH interim executive director since December of 2025 — has been named permanent executive director of the museum system that includes the Pink Palace, the Lichterman Nature Center and other historic properties and scientific attractions.
“Jeff brings a rare combination of institutional knowledge, operational expertise and a deep, genuine love for each of our museum properties,” said Gwyn Fisher, chair of the 14-member board, in a statement. “Throughout his interim leadership, he has demonstrated that he understands
not only where this organization has been, but also the tremendous opportunity ahead."
King, who began working at MoSH some five years ago, succeeds Kevin Thompson, who resigned at the end of 2025 after almost six years with MoSH.
MoSH is the nonprofit managing organization best known for the Pink Palace, the museum complex that boasts a Giant Screen Theater; planetarium; dinosaur exhibits; a replica of the first self-service grocery store (a Piggy Wiggly, opened in Memphis in 1916); and the museum's namesake pink Georgian marble mansion, built by Piggy Wiggly founder Clarence Saunders in 1923.
The Pink Palace also hosts numerous public events. Sept. 25-27, the Pink Palace Crafts Fair, a Memphis tradition since 1973 that bills itself as "the Mid-South’s largest juried arts and crafts fair," will return to its original location — the lawn outside the Pink Palace museum at 3050 Central — after 35 years in Audubon Park.
Other MoSH properties include the 65 acres of lake, meadow and forest known as Lichterman Nature Center; the 1852 Mallory-Neely House, in the historic neighborhood, Victorian Village; and the Coon Creek Science Center in McNairy County, where fossil specimens of hundreds of prehistoric marine species were discovered, including carnivorous mosasaurs (a fearsome mosasaur replica skeleton greets visitors at the Pink Palace's Central Avenue entrance).
King worked in various executive and sales capacities at the Denver Art Museum before coming to Memphis, serving as director of guest services and then chief operating officer for MoSH. As COO, he oversaw most of the organization's functions, including education, exhibitions and collections, marketing, public programming, and theater and planetarium operations.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Fine and Studio Arts, with a minor in Art History, from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.
The search for MoSH's new executive director was conducted with Museum Search & Reference, a Boston and New Hampshire-based firm.
"The Board’s Search Committee evaluated a diverse pool of accomplished candidates from across the country before unanimously recommending King for the position," according to a MoSH press release.
For more information, visit moshmemphis.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Pink Palace, Memphis museums name new director
