Brooks McNamara, Shubert Archives Director and Theater Historian Dead at 72

The new York Times reports that Brooks McNamara passed away on May 8, 2009 at the age of 72. He was most well known and regarded for his role as the founding director of the Shubert Archives. The immediate cause was pneumonia, said his wife in a statement to the Times, Nan. Mr. McNamara had been suffering from sporadic cerebellar ataxia, a degenerative nerve disorder.

In that capacity for 20 years he oversaw the consolidation, preservation, and cataloguing of several million items dating back to the 19th century that comprise the vast Shubert archives, and made them accessible to scholars around the world. McNamara lived in Doylestown and Manhattan.

He was a longtime member of ASTR, served on the Executive Committee, and received the Distinguished Scholar Award and the Errol J. Hill Award in 1997. But his contribution to American theatre was amazingly diverse, and his influence on several generations of scholars cannot be overestimated.

McNamara began teaching at NYU's Graduate Drama Department in 1968, and was instrumental in its transformation into the Performance Studies Department, which started in 1980. After retiring in 1996, McNamara remained Professor Emeritus of Performance Studies and Director Emeritus of the Shubert Archive.

In addition to his wife, whom he met in college and married in 1962, Mr. McNamara is survived by a brother, Scott, of Tucson, Ariz.; a daughter, Jane McNamara, of Queens; a son, Whitney, of Brooklyn; and four grandchildren. To read the full article in The Times click here.