AUSTIN, Texas — Catherine Taylor, director of the Bullock Texas State History Museum and a longtime leader at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, has died after a brief illness.

A native of Texas, Taylor lived in California for most of her life. She earned a BA in history at the California State University-Sacramento and also was a graduate of the Museum Management Institute at UC-Berkley.

She held several key positions at the California museum over the years, including director of the museum and executive director of the CSRM Foundation. She retired in March 2014 as Division Chief in the state’s Department of State Parks & Recreation.

Taylor was a primer mover in a number of initiatives at the Sacramento museum, including the staging of two hugely successful Railfair public festivals in 1991 and 1999, as well as the strategy to pursue the building of a railroad technology museum in the adjacent Sacramento Shops of the Southern Pacific. In October 2013, she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of Tourist Railroads & Railway Museums.

After retiring from state parks, Taylor moved to the Nantucket (Mass.) Historical Association in Massachusetts, where she was director of museum resources for historical properties on the island.

In July 2017, she was named director of the huge Bullock museum, a major attraction in downtown Austin, with more than 600,000 annual visitors.

“In her short time here, she brought such an energy and life to the museum, and we’re so grateful for that,” said Margaret Koch, deputy director of the museum.

Taylor is survived by her partner of many years, Carl Bradley.