shop, directed membership drives, sponsored field trips and tours, gave 
parties for the membership, coordinated docents, and oversaw fund- 
raising events such as “‘Dance-O-Saurus.’’4 
In 1981 the Friends dedicated a 25-foot stainless steel sculpture 
in the memory of Marguerite D. Yates. The sculpture, christened 
‘*Primogenesis,’’ was installed in the center of a small pond located 
in the southeast corner of Oak Knoll Park.’ Marguerite Yates died in 
1980 at the age of 66. She joined the Museum staff as a secretary to 
the director in 1959 and became an extremely valuable employee. She 
was named Administrative Assistant in 1962 and Assistant Director in 
1975. The Museum paid tribute to Mrs. Yates’ more than twenty years 
of service by renaming its temporary exhibits space the Marguerite D. 
Yates Hall. At the time of her death, Mrs. Yates was secretary-treasurer 
to the Museum’s Board of Commissioners and served in a similar capa- 
city for the Academy of Science. 
Like Marguerite Yates, Academy president Jules Campbell and 
other Academy officers, such as Lee Schnure, served on the Academy’s 
Board and on the Museum’s Board of Commissioners. Some years, they 
worked as commissioners. In others, they served on the Advisory Com- 
mittee. In either capacity, Academy leaders continued to help direct 
the activities of the Museum, including long-range planning. 
‘By the mid-1970s, it was clear that the Museum had outgrown the 
buildings in Oak Knoll Park. Director Brazier noted that “‘every part 
of these houses has been utilized. We have storerooms full of items 
that there is no room to display.’’® Furthermore, it became ever more 
difficult, as the number of visitors rose, to accommodate them and their 
vehicles at Oak Knoll. 
‘In 1% , following the determination that a major expansion at Oak 
Knoll was impractical, the Museum retained the services of a profes- 
sional architectural firm to conduct a site selection survey for a new 
structure.” The commissioners, with the aid of this firm, identified three 
broad areas: 1) the Riverfront-Downtown-Union Station area, 2) the 
Forest Park area, and 3) an area in St. Louis County. The second loca- 
tion was eventually deemed most suitable.® 
Moving the Museum to Forest Park, the Commissioners reasoned, 
could mean a joining of the Museum with the city’s planetarium, which 
was experiencing severe financial difficulties. A St. Louis ‘‘science 
center’ could thus be created. The Museum developed a plan to show 
what form this merger might take. The plan called for the construction 
of a 100,000-square-foot museum building adjacent to the existing 
planetarium structure. This museum building would be partially 
underground, and its location would, the planners contended, ‘‘enhance 
the architectural beauty of the planetarium without disturbing the natural 
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