STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Barnett Shepherd, a historian, preservationist, visionary and Renaissance Man dedicated to Staten Island’s past with a focus on securing it for the future, died Wednesday afternoon of a respiratory infection in the Staten Island Care Center, a half mile from his longtime New Brighton home.

He had celebrated his 87th birthday on July 26.

Though born in St. Joseph, Missouri, and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, Mr. Shepherd spent much of his adult life on Staten Island. When he arrived in 1972, the borough was in the midst of an unprecedented development surge following the 1964 opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Bulldozers threatened many historic properties and preservation was not always a priority.

To raise awareness of the importance of saving historic

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