NEWPORT BEACH — David Muller, executive director of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum (NHNM), parted ways with the museum, stepping down from the position he held for the past five years, museum officials announced Jan. 20.

David Muller

Rita Redaelli Stenlund has been appointed interim executive director by the museum’s board of trustees while officials “formulate plans for the new leadership direction” that is said to come in the next few months.

A press release issued by the museum announced the position change and did not explain the reasons behind the decision, only citing Muller’s departure to “pursue new endeavors.”

“We had a visionary leader during the past few years,” said James D. Reed, president of the board of trustees for NHNM. “David helped us take several important steps toward transforming the museum. He was instrumental in defining a ‘visioning’ project that set a new and extraordinary course for the future: a commitment to mold this historic organization into a top-flight nautical museum.”

Muller led the museum through the move from the 189-foot replica steamboat Pride of Newport in 2006, when the lease with the Irvine Company was coming to an end. Formerly the Reuben E. Lee restaurant, the riverboat held the museum for 10 years before the museum and its contents outgrew the vessel. The museum relocated to the Balboa Fun Zone in December 2006.

Unable to sell the riverboat, which was purchased by the museum for $1 in 1995, portions of Pride of Newport were dismantled and auctioned. The vessel was later sunk at sea.

Muller also helped open the museum’s two galleries: The Steele Model Pavilion and the East Wing Gallery. Stenlund has held the museum’s development director position since 2008. Her background includes work for C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and South Coast Plaza, along with local, regional and international nonprofit organizations.