He died in Dunedin on Tuesday, aged 78, after a battle with cancer.
Dr Palenski was chief executive of the hall of fame when it established a national museum at the Dunedin Railway Station in 1999 and he ran it for more than 20 years.
His background as a highly respected sports writer and his breadth of contacts were invaluable and led to hall inductees giving or loaning memorabilia, hall of fame chairman Stuart McLauchlan said.
"He worked tirelessly in the set-up phase and we also benefited from having Kathy, Ron’s wife, [as a staff member]," Mr McLauchlan said.
Dr Palenski was himself inducted into the hall of fame last year for services to the hall and journalism.
"I spent 20-odd years running the hall of fame, talking about famous sportspeople, and it just feels very odd to include myself among them," he said at the time.
Former longtime Silver Ferns netball coach Dame Lois Muir, who was inducted into the hall in 1993, said Dr Palenski worked hard to give due recognition to sportspeople and their achievements.
"He was the heart and soul of the hall," she said.
He wrote about 50 books, including helping former All Blacks captain Graham Mourie with his best-selling autobiography and producing authoritative accounts of the history of New Zealand rugby and the nation’s representation in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
At the University of Otago, he wrote a master’s thesis about New Zealand World War 1 correspondent Malcolm Ross, and his doctoral thesis was about the evolution of New Zealand identity in the 19th century.
Dr Palenski started as a journalist with The Evening Star in Dunedin and then joined the New Zealand Press Association and The Dominion in Wellington.
He covered several overseas tours by the All Blacks, as well as political trips.
He was also chairman of the Otago Rugby Football Union for almost seven years, from mid-2003.
Former sports administrator and broadcaster Paul Allison said Dr Palenski made an immense contribution to chronicling the history of New Zealand sport.
"His attention to detail and accuracy was first-rate," Mr Allison said.
Dr Palenski stepped back from fulltime work when diagnosed with cancer in 2020.
A service to celebrate his life is to be held next Wednesday at the Hope and Sons chapel in South Dunedin.
