James Achenbach knows well that it should be called the Hall of Shame for the terrible way the PGA treated Dick Stranahan, who was the curator when the hall was in Pinehurst. He wrote an article about it in 2000, 2001
Dick was the Pro at Wyantenuck CC in Great Barrington. I knew him there through my association with some members and visited him a couple times after he took the job in Pinehurst. A side note: if you wanted a job from him he'd crack the pro shop door open, hand you an iron, and tell you to hook one onto the first tee. Dick could drive the first green from just out front of the shop. Check the distance, tremendous when you remember that he was using persimmon and balata. He qualified for a US Open and a couple of PGAs around 50 years ago.
Anyway, the PGA hired him for the Pinehurst job so Dick gives up his job at Wyantenuck and he and his wife move down there. When the WGV took over the hall the PGA fired him when he was one year short of his pension. They promised him some consulting work if he'd sign an agreement saying he wouldn't sue them so he did, and they screwed him anyway. His wife died of cancer and he ended up living in a trailer in Ca..
What a pathetic organization, and what a pathetic way to treat a human being, especially one whose whole life was golf.
Dick was voted into the first CT Section Hall of Fame in 2008, but I don't know if he attended.