Dear Missy: You regret as many of my friends do that I am not eternally astride a ton of clay, constantly modeling. On the other hand, the insistent application of a man’s mind or his body to one activity creates lopsidedness. I was hardly out of my teens before I discovered that it was only men of varied interest in life, men of varied capacities, whose minds survived middle age.... I mean the sort of men who can turn from the study of an orchid to the building of a fortress, to mending a sewer, to designing a fleet, to colonizing a continent. Gutzon spoke a lot. He liked public speaking and he was good at it. Any good cause was his cause, and, inasmuch as he never seemed to be looking for any personal reward from his public fighting, he made a lot of friends in unexpected places. He loved children and he was disturbed by New York’s lack of room for them. He remembered his own childhood--so much of it in the fresh, open air--and he campaigned vigorously for playgrounds or parks or unplanned pieces of the outdoors that would give them a chance to stretch their legs. He began to write on such subjects for the newspapers and spent most of his days in wordy controversy. He wrote largely on political subjects and was rated among the country’s foremost essayists on the subject of world peace. His peace article, “An Essay on Economic Boycott,” was one of twelve selected from 20,000 for publication in the book “Ways to Peace.” It was widely reported in the newspapers, widely discussed, and carried abroad by President Wilson when he went to make his futile treaty of Versailles. The park controversies pleased Gutzon for two reasons. He thought they might bring about a little better living for the children. And they might promote a general love for flowers--bring a new generation into the open air and give it a consciousness of nature. He loved growing things--green trees, soft grass and the smell of aromatic shrubs. He never forgot his chase to capture the moon in Fremont. In his early life he wished to be a horticulturist. Years afterward he found at the door of his New York studio an opportunity to practice his green thumb and at the same time to put his play-spot theories into practical development. In 1907 he was invited to join the board of directors and serve on the executive committee of the Metropolitan Parks Association which became the Parks and Playgrounds Association of the City of New York. His membership was one of his special interests for twenty years. He was appointed chairman of a subcommittee which later became an independent body looking after the affairs of Central Park.