Stuart Park (museum director)

Park was born in Croydon, Surrey, England on 21 August 1947, the son of Douglas Robert Park and Doreen Ledlie Stuart.[1] His father, originally from Dunedin, served in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve during World War II.[2]

Park attended North Sydney Boys High School and at age 15 arrived in New Zealand, where he attended Otago Boys' High School.[1] After high school, Park studied at the University of Otago, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968 and a Master of Arts with honours in 1972.[3]

Park was employed as the anthropologist at Otago Museum in 1968, where he stayed for 11 years.[3] During this time, he worked on excavating archaeological sites at Tiwai Point, before the construction of the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter.[4] He left the Otago Museum in 1979 after 12 years to become the director of the Auckland War Memorial Museum,[5] becoming one of the youngest museum directors in New Zealand, at 32.[6][7]

While at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Park took a keen interest in developing the museum volunteers programme, which began in December 1983.[8] In addition to this, Park had interests in ethnology, applied arts and museum studies,[6] and instigated the first Auckland Museum newsletters.[9] After an incident when TVNZ reused old footage taken at the museum of culturally sensitive items against his wishes, Park banned TVNZ from filming at the museum.[10] In the early 1990s, Park worked to redevelop the first floor of the museum, including the Volcanoes & Giants exhibition and Weird & Wonderful, an exhibition space for tactile learning about the natural world.[11]

He left Auckland War Memorial Museum in December 1993, becoming a concept leader for Te Papa in Wellington from 1993 until 1998.[3] Park, as a member of the concept leader team, was tasked with conceiving ideas for opening exhibits at Te Papa for its opening in 1998, as well as developing the museum's collections.[12] After the museum opened, Park became the director of museum resources from 1998 to 1999.[3] In October 1999, Park moved to Kerikeri, where he became the Northland area manager for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.[3] During this period, Park worked on creating a central database for information on Northland war memorials.[13][14]

Park retired on 31 August 2012,[3] after which he dedicated much of his time to developing a personal collection of glasswork, which was exhibited at the New Zealand Glassworks facility in Whanganui in 2022.[15] In 2016, Park wrote the content for Path to Nationhood, an app created by Heritage New Zealand that offers audio tours of different historic areas around Northland.[16]

In 2018, Park became a Fellow of Auckland War Memorial Museum.[17][18]

• Park, G. S. (1969). "Tiwai Point: A preliminary report". New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter. 12: 143–146. Wikidata Q119374998.
• Park, G. S. (1971). "Chemical analysis in archaeology". New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter. 14 (4): 173–178. Wikidata Q119379397.
• Park, G. S. (1972). "Towards an overview of New Zealand prehistory". New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter. 15 (3): 105–112. Wikidata Q119379594.
• Park, G. S.; Sutton, D. G.; Ward, G. K. (1972). "Notes on the protection of archaeological sites and historic materials". New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter. 16: 5–13. Wikidata Q119374282.
• Park, G. S.; Sutton, D. G.; Ward, G. K. (1973). "Further notes on the conservation of antiquities". New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter. 16 (1): 22–24. Wikidata Q119379609.
• Green, R. C.; Park, G. S. (1976). "New Zealand prehistory: informing the public". New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter. 19 (4): 187–192. Wikidata Q119379626.
• Park, G. S. (1978). "Radiocarbon dates from Tiwai Point, Southland". New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter. 21: 143–145. Wikidata Q119375355.
• Park, G.S. (1980). "Chinese Coins in New Zealand" (PDF). New Zealand Numismatic Journal. 15 (2): 55–61. Wikidata Q119426355.
• Park, Stuart (1983). "New Zealand Commercial Ceramics" (PDF). AGMANZ News. 14 (3): 2–3. Wikidata Q119379689.
• Park, Stuart (1985). "Deaccessioning" (PDF). AGMANZ News. 16 (3): 12–14. Wikidata Q119379725.
• Park, Stuart (1986). An introduction to Auckland Museum. Illustrator: Brian Brake, Raymond Lau. ISBN 0-908623-06-2. Wikidata Q119369099.
• Park, Stuart (1989). "The Pacific Stone Adze Studies of H.D. Skinner and Roger Duff: an Historical Survey". Saying So Doesn’t Make It So – Papers in Honour of B. Foss Leach: 35–63. Wikidata Q119375315.
• Park, Stuart (1992). "Te Peeke o Aotearoa: The Bank of King Tawhiao". New Zealand Journal of History. 26 (2): 161–183. ISSN 0028-8322. Wikidata Q119378260.
• Park, Stuart (1998). "John Alexander Smith and the Early History of Auckland Museum, 1852-1867". Records of the Auckland Museum. 35: 13–43. ISSN 1174-9202. JSTOR 42905832. Wikidata Q58623224.
• Park, Stuart (2004). "A future for our past?". Archaeology in New Zealand. 47 (4): 185–188. Wikidata Q119375077.

• Lambert, Max (1991). Who's Who in New Zealand, 1991 (12th ed.). Auckland: Octopus. ISBN 9780790001302.
• Thwaites, Ian (2015). A Good Place to Be: Auckland Museum People 1929–89. Ian Thwaites. ISBN 978-0-473-32932-7. OCLC 927167353. Wikidata Q64995662.