About DOUGLAS STARK

Douglas Stark has worked at three prominent museums — the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass, the United States Golf Association Museum in Far Hills, N.J. and currently as the Museum Director at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. As the Museum Director, Doug oversees the day-to-day operation of the museum. He has successfully directed the museum’s pursuit of accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, resulting in the International Tennis Hall of Fame becoming the first sports hall of fame to be accredited. He is a board member of the New England Museum Association and currently serves as First Vice President. He has also been an adjunct professor in the Museum Studies Program at the Harvard University Extension School. Most impressively, he has been a part of capital projects that have re-conceptualized and rebuilt three new sports museums.

His experience has included collections care, content and exhibit development, strategic planning, financial management, branding and messaging, product development, and programming and outreach. His efforts have focused on making the history of sports more engaging, relevant, and accessible to a wider, more diverse audience.

He is the author of The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball’s Greatest Jewish Team published by Temple University Press in 2011. He is the co-author of Tennis and the Newport Casino published by Arcadia Publishing in 2011. He is also the co-author with Lance Gotthoffer of a children’s book, Shikey Gotthoffer, published by Maine Authors Publishing released in September 2015.  His forthcoming book, Wartime Basketball: The Emergence of a National Sport during World War II will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2016. He is presently working on two additional books—one on the integration of professional basketball and the second on editing oral histories of Jewish basketball players 1900-1960.