88 



I 



without losing my composure. Of all the friends I have made in 

 later life he was the closest. While mv first association with 

 him, some thirty years ago, related to philanthropic efifort (and 

 that association has heen continuous ever since), my real relation 

 to him has long heen within the inner circle of congenial and 

 intimate friendship. , 



While I know of him as a protagonist in the cause of housing 

 reform and as one of the earliest leaders in the charity organiza- 

 tion movement, I think of him more as the keen lover of Nature 

 who treasured all that is beautiful. In the wild forests of the 

 Adirondacks, in the wintry solitude of the Highland Lakes, on 

 one of which he lost his life while skating on January 29, he 

 always showed a quick response to the '^ call of the wild." An 

 early morning ascent of Mt. Marcy, an all day tramp over the 

 Gothics, or an excursion to a remote lake where he had found 

 the most northerly home of our native rhododendron, always 

 attracted him. I am not sure but that he found more companion- 

 ship on such trips in the solitude of the woods than even in the 

 congenial company of friends. My last conversation with him 

 on the day before he died related, quite as much to the more 

 recent acquisitions of our art museum and the famous Book of 

 Hours of Queen Johanna, which he had had reprinted, as to the 

 projects of the Sage Foundation. ' 



Some thirty years ago I found myself appointed to a na- 

 tional committee of which he w^as a member. I then knew noth- 

 ing of him except that his home was in Brooklyn. It w^as of 

 interest to me to know the character of men with whom I was to 

 be associated. I asked one of the best known business men of 

 Brooklyn who Alfred T. White was. He looked at me with 



r 



great surprise. Said he — '' Is it possible, de Forest, that you 



don't know? Fie is the best and most useful citizen of Brook- 

 lyn." I shrink from superlatives in characterizing men. There 



are so many 



different angles from 



which attainment can be 



estimated. I can truthfully say, however, of my own knowledge 

 that there was no more useful and public spirited citizen in 

 Greater New York than Alfred T. White. 



