For over a decade, Bath residents and visitors spent summer nights thrilled by the antics of the legendary pirate Blackbeard in the outdoor play “Blackbeard, Knight of the Black Flag.” For four decades, Greenville residents and visitors have flocked to Sunday in the Park, a 10-week series of free concerts at the Town Commons.

Stuart Aronson dedicated his life to making the arts accessible in eastern North Carolina, as a playwright, a performer, a teacher and facilitator. He died Oct. 31 at the age of 80.

Aronson was born in raised in Chicago where he began his artistic career early. At the age of 5, he became a radio star, playing the role of “Skippy” on the “Ma Perkins” radio soap opera, and starred in other shows. His love of music led him to a degree in fine arts and theater from Northwestern University, and years spent singing opera in Europe. He and his wife, Nicole, later settled in Greenville, where they both taught at East Carolina University: she taught literature; he, speech and drama.

“He did so many things,” said Aronson’s longtime friend, Washington resident M.J. Carbo. “He did a long series of commercials; he did many, many other plays that he either wrote or things that he acted in. He was just — for a long, long time — he was a big part of culture in eastern North Carolina.”

Aronson had a particular affinity for local history, and used it to shape his outdoor dramas “Blackbeard, Knight of the Black Flag” and “Blackbeard’s Revenge,” as well as “The Last Showboat,” a play about “Showboat” author Edna Ferber’s trip on the James B. Adams floating theater, which she boarded in Bath and later went on to use as fodder for her book and subsequent award-winning Broadway musical. The play was a historically accurate rendition of events as they might have transpired when Ferber took a four-day ride up the Pamlico River on the boat, gathering information for her novel by assuming different roles while on board — among them ticket-taker and actor in walk-on roles in the nightly performances. The play was performed at the Washington Civic Center.

Aronson also started the popular Sunday in the Park series in Greenville 41 years ago. He organized the event for the next 40 years, bringing many different types of music onto the amphitheater stage for the free concerts. Similar events have since been copied and implemented across the state.

“He brought so much music to people who normally wouldn’t necessarily be exposed to it,” Carbo said.

Carbo said Aronson had a stroke in July and never fully recovered. There are no funeral arrangements.