OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 



101 



decisions had led to a judgment more mature 

 than one usually found in one of his age. I 

 remember with some sense of humor his way 

 of scoring those who he considered had not 

 acted squarely; and I remember, too, the many 

 affectionate memories which he was wont to 

 expand upon in private. It was with con- 

 sternation, while in Mr. Child's office in Santa 

 Barbara during the winter of 1913, having ar- 

 ranged with Charles for expanding the work 

 in the West which Mr. Child kindly rendered 

 possible, that I received word from Charles of 

 the sudden attack which overtook him. His 

 doctor ordered him to leave Cleveland at once; 

 but, with the deterinamtion of the captain on 

 a sinking vessel, he wrote that he would not 

 leave till I returned, which I soon did. I did 

 induce him to go finally, seeing him in Col- 

 orado Springs on my way East. 'I am going 

 to win this fight,' he said to me, as I left him 

 alone in his room." 



Charles did win his fight for the time 

 being, and in May, 1914, he was able to 

 leave the sanitarium, though obliged still 

 to exercise a great deal of care not to 

 bring about a recurrence of his difficulty, 

 and still and for an indefinite time to re- 

 main at a high altitude. He was, there- 

 fore, obliged to renounce the idea of con- 

 tinuing the practice of Landscape Archi- 

 tecture with Evans in Cleveland, who, 

 so long as there was any hope of Charles' 

 return, had held on to the business and 

 the firm name. Charles settled in Den- 

 \er and in time was able to do a certain 

 amount of professional work. In the 

 spring of 1916 Mr. Irvin J. McCrary, who 

 was practicing in Denver, offered him a 

 place ;and he was with McCrary until the 

 spring of 191 T and from letters during 

 that time to the writer was evidently 

 happy to be back again in the practice 

 of his chosen profession. We were get- 

 ting into the war and he could no longer 

 refrain from doing his utmost to get in- 

 to active service. He was unsucessful in 

 this on account of his physical condition 

 but on July 30, 1917, he received his ap- 

 pointment to a position in Washington 

 under the Fine Arts Commission and en- 

 tered the Service of the Department of 



Public Buildings and Grounds as Land- 

 scape Architect for the District of Col- 

 umbia. On July 31, he was transferred 

 to the position of Landscape Engineer of 

 the National Park Service of the Interior 

 Department and was serving in this 

 capacity at the time of his death in Den- 

 ver on the evening of November, 12, 

 1920. 



The following extracts from the 

 writer's corresi)ondence with the Na- 

 tional Park Service is believed to be of 

 interest to Charles Punchard's friends. 

 Acting Director Mr. Horace M. Albright 

 writes as follows : 



"I am pleased to observe your interest in 

 Mr. Punchard. He was appointed last sum- 

 mer as Landscape Engineer in the National 

 Park Service and spent several months in 

 Yellowstone Park where he made a study of 

 the arrangement of the buildings occupied by 

 the various concessioners. As a result of his 

 recommendations we have required the camp- 

 ing company, particularly, to rearrange and al- 

 ter certain of their structures and otherwise 

 make their camps more attractive and har- 

 monious with the environment. 



"Following his stay in Yellowstone Mr. 

 Punchard made a survey of conditions with 

 a view to more comprehensive developments 

 in General Grant and Sequoia National Parks, 

 and then proceeded to Yosemite, where he 

 spent most of the winter making a general 

 study of conditions, more especially with 

 reference to the Valley. 



"Mr. Mather had him accompany him for 

 a short visit to the Grand Canyon National 

 Park, and took him later to Hawaii to make 

 a preliminary inspection of the National Park 

 in the islands. 



"As Landscape Engineer Mr. Punchard oc- 

 cupies a position of considerable responsibili- 

 ty and he is consulted on all problems dealing 

 with architectural and landscape features in 

 the various parks. He is regarded as par- 

 ticularly competent and is held in high esteem 

 by all of us. We feel that he is especially 

 fitted for the work, and besides I am sure that 

 he has a genuine interest in it which makes 

 his efforts the more effective." 



And in reply to a further sjiecific in- 

 quiry from the writer, Mr. Albright, un- 

 der date of May 29, added the following: 



