Lighthouse Park District

Staff Biography

Donald J. Terras

Donald J. Terras, director of the Lighthouse Park District, has worked in the administration of landmark property at a broad range of private and public educational institutions including the Evanston History Center's Dawes House Museum, Department of Anthropology at the Milwaukee Public Museum and as Guest Curator in the Department of Special Exhibits at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Since 1983, Mr. Terras has been chief administrator of The Lighthouse Park District, a unit of local government in Evanston, IL, and manages daily affairs of the District and also the District-operated Grosse Point Light Station museum under the title of Lighthouse Keeper. This structure was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior on the strength of a nomination submitted by Mr. Terras and is one of few lighthouses in the country to have obtained this designation. Mr. Terras’ work on behalf of the Lighthouse Park District has been recognized with the Margery Perkins Award from the Evanston Preservation Commission and Richard H. Driehaus Award from the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois (Landmarks Illinois). Both awards are the highest possible honor accorded locally and within the State of Illinois, recognizing outstanding achievement in preserving and interpreting Grosse Point Lighthouse as an historic site museum. Mr. Terras has also received the Professional of the Year Award from the Illinois Association of Museums for his work that includes research, interpretation, adaptive use preservation planning, publishing, and teaching museum studies at both the undergraduate and graduate college level. Nationally, Mr. Terras served on the American Lighthouse Coordinating Committee, a 12-member task force that established a National Lighthouse Museum in New York City and he is past president of the American Lighthouse Council, a national lighthouse preservation and education oversight agency now an affiliate of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. Mr. Terras is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from Evanston for his many years of exceptional stewardship at Grosse Point Lighthouse and has also received the American Lighthouse Council’s F. Ross Holland Distinguished Service Award.

Mr. Terras’ most celebrated publication is Grosse Point Lighthouse: Landmark to Maritime History and Culture (Windy City Press, 1996). This book won awards for superior achievement from the Illinois Association of Museums and American Association for State and Local History. Other books include Lighthouses of Chicago Harbor: Their History, Architecture and Lore (Windy City Press, 2006), Hugo’s Companions (Windy City Press, 1999) a book that documents the 50-year history of a Chicago literary group. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes (Northeastern Illinois University Press, 2003), is a commemorative edition marking the establishment of the C. Fred Kittle Collection of Doyleana at Chicago’s Newberry Library and is co-author of The Hounds of the Baskerville (sic) (Baskerville Press, 2017) a limited edition book marking the 75th anniversary of this special interest literary society (https://houndsofthebaskerville.org/biographies/#Terras). He co-wrote the script to the video Grosse Point Lighthouse: Landmark to Great Lakes Maritime History (2003 Lighthouse Preservation Fund) which won an award for superior achievement from the American Association for State and Local History.

Mr. Terras is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin program in Museum Studies and also holds a Master of Science degree in anthropology with an applied interest in the preservation, interpretation and use of historic and cultural resources. He has taught courses on the history and function of museums for the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago where he received two faculty achievement awards during his tenure there. He has been featured on Grosse Point Light Station, 1873 at https://vimeo.com/471036252 and WYCC Public Television's Mystery Marathon at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRODGPRJUb4.