Brooks McNamara

McNAMARA--Brooks, died on May 8, in Doylestown, PA. He was 72. Mr. McNamara held a bachelor's degree from Knox College, a master's degree from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in theater history from Tulane University. Mr. McNamara was a professor emeritus in the Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and founding director of the archives of the Shubert Organization. He held a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His was a Fellow of the American Theater, and served on the boards of the Theater Library Association, the American Society for Theater Reseach, and the Doylestwon Historical Society. A scholar of American theater history and popular entertainment, he was author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Step Right Up: The American Meidicne Show; The New York Concert Saloon; The Devil's Own Nights; and The Merry Muldoons and the Brighteyes Affair, for children. He is survived by wife, Nan, his daughter and son-in-law Jane McNamara and John Oddy, his son and daughter-in-law Whitney and Mona McNamara and his grandchildren, James Brooks Oddy, Gwendolyn Claire McNamara, George Jansen Oddy and Thomas Carlin McNamara. He is also survived by his brother and sister-in-law Scott McNamara and Carol Wittels, his sister-in-law Sally Kuder and his mother-in-law Nan Jansen. Services will be held on Saturday May 30 at 3pm in Saint Paul's Lutheran Church, North Main and Spruce Streets, Doylestown, PA.