Senior Project Manager, Education

	Photo: Dennis Keeley.

Wilbur Faulk spent 15 years in the Getty's security department before taking a position as a senior project manager with the GCI. Working in the Institute's Education group, he participates in a variety of initiatives focused on international cultural property protection.

Wilbur grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood, where his father was superintendent at a local steel mill. While attending college, he spent his summers working at the mill, then later took a full-time job as a warehouse supervisor. In 1970 he joined the Santa Monica Fire Department, becoming a paramedic four years later. Two years later he was promoted to captain, the first in the department to also serve as a paramedic. It was work that he loved, but an injury during a fire—and the surgeries that followed—forced him to retire in 1983.

In 1984, while awaiting a background check for a job with the U.S. State Department, he met with the head of security for the Getty Museum, who subsequently hired him as the Getty's first security training supervisor (this significant change in his professional life was mirrored in his personal life—during this period he married his wife Ellen). When the Getty security director retired in 1985, Wilbur was named as his replacement. In 1993 he was promoted to the newly created position of director of security for the Getty Trust and was deeply involved in the design and construction of the Getty Center, managing all aspects of the security, fire, and life safety systems while continuing to run the rapidly growing security department.

At the end of 1999, seeking a change, he joined the GCI, where he now works with other cultural institutions nationally and internationally on security, fire, and disaster preparedness issues. His activities have included emergency planning training for the GCI's Latin American Consortium and organizing and leading several comprehensive security seminars—at the St. Petersburg International Center for Preservation—for major cultural institutions in Russia. Assisting institutions and organizations around the world has been very gratifying personally as well as professionally. In the future, Wilbur looks forward to applying his expertise to issues of site protection as part of the Institute's site management initiatives.

Wilbur currently serves as committee secretary for the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Security Committee, and as a board member of the American Association of Museums/ICOM.