Acknowledgments

I first honor my editors at Cornell University Press: editor in chief Mahinder Kingra, and Martyn Beeny, Karen Hwa, Michael McGandy, and Clare Jones. It has been five years of working together, and I am most grateful for their expertise, guidance, and help.

I honor my ever-supportive and encouraging and helpful personal editors for the latest fifth, sixth, and seventh drafts: John Reynolds, the retired deputy director and Pacific West regional director for the National Park Service; Hanns Kuttner, a Seneca Falls native son and supporter throughout the development of the park, including a summer as a ranger; Dick Foote, also a Seneca Falls native son and a volunteer videographer in 1983; and attorney Riker Purcell. Peggy Lipson, now Halderman, my counterpart legislative specialist in Washington in 1978 and 1979, also helped edit this draft. Earlier drafts included exceptional editorial help from Whitney Roberts Hill and Penny Colman.

I am grateful to my agents. John Able, professor emeritus at Cornell’s Engineering School, connected me to Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of History at Cornell, who connected me to Cornell Press editor Michael McGandy.

I honor the legion of friends who said (from 1982 on), “You have to write a book.” While it took many years to fruition, it was thanks to this encouragement that in all my many, many moves over thirty years, including to the West Coast and back to the East Coast, I included my boxes of papers and documents and photographs that have been so important in reconstructing these stories from forty years ago.

I honor all those who supported the park from its idea to its realization. This book describes their commitment. Two individuals are noted here for their devoted support all the way through this story: Herb Cables, the North Atlantic Regional Office director, and Terry Savage, chief of planning in the North Atlantic Regional Office.

And I honor all those who so generously and graciously contributed their memories and insights to this book. Extensive interviews were completed, sometimes several times, especially with Hanns Kuttner of the photographic memory. Their stories are in this book, so I will just list their names: Doug Auer, Marilyn Bero, Mary Bradford, Holly Bundock, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, Nancy Dubner, Bert Fortner, Peggy Lipson Halderman, Ann Marshall, Coline Jenkins, Theodore Liebman, Francis X. Mahady, Ray Kinoshita Mann, Grover Mouton, Riker Purcell, Scott Putman, John Reynolds, Sue Sauvageau, Terry Savage, August Sinicropi, Martin Toombs, and Tania Werbizky.

For answering my many requests for information, clarification, and interpretation I especially note National Park Service friends including Don Hellmann, retired chief of legislation; de Teel Patterson (Pat) Tiller, retired deputy associate director for cultural resources; Barbara Pearson Yocum, retired architectural conservator; Denis Galvin, retired associate director for planning; Warren Brown, retired chief of planning; and John Sprinkle and James Alvey. Superintendent of the Adams National Historical Park Marianne Peak provided the input for Abigail Adams. Maria Smith conducted a few dozen oral history interviews for the park in the summer of 2020, helping me remember the events of 1978 to 1989.

There has been a village of friends of the book. They have encouraged me and commented on chapters. I thank them all; without their support the book would not have been completed. The first and most enthusiastic supporter was Bill Schaefer, a friend since fourth grade at Prairie Grade School and throughout his life. Friends going back to Shawnee Mission High School include Sally Barhydt, Libbie Pottle Berkobile, Bob Bramson, Ann Holmes, and Bob Sayler. Friends from Cornell include Fay Hendersen and Pandy Gerard. Friends after graduation include Ronald Goodman and Peter Allen. Friends also include Larry Kennings, planner in Marin, California, and Will Travis, former commissioner of the California Coastal Commission. Becky Anderson, founder of Hand Made in North Carolina, frequently reminded me that I must finish this book, as did Lynn Ivey, Tyler Chapin, and Gray Smithdeal, who have enthusiastically supported my undertaking. Patricia Haines-Gooding was generous with her memories and records, as was early ranger Debbie Wolfe. At a crucial slump in this writing, Suzanne Hall awarded me a piece of ostrich shell with “write your story” scripted on it. Writing my story sounded so much more achievable then than writing a book.

Friends for the early work include especially author Charles Cameron Mann and preservationist Max Page. Professor emeritus of Virginia Commonwealth University John Kneebone helped lift off draft number one. Michael Whitlaw was my first teacher of how to write a story.

Friends who were also writing books commiserated, answered questions, and cheered me on: Dr. Elisabeth Griffith, Joe Kutchera, Janna Liggan, Frank Mahady, Ray Kinoshita Mann, Sally Norton, Liz O’Hara, and Mike Soukup.

Friends who offered their homes for writing retreats at crucial times are appreciated: Peter Allen and Barbara Grad, Marie and Mason Ayers, Betsy Brinson, Frances Caldwell, and Coline Jenkins.

Three IT specialists were critically important help with my overtaxed tech skills and my overworked printer and laptop: Greg Gunther, Ken Hitchens, and Mike Tesseri.

I especially thank my dedicated doctors at the VCU Massey Center who healed me: Dr. Todd Adams, Dr. Mary Helen Hackney, and Dr. Kandace McGuire. And I thank the healers who helped bring me back to writing this book, including Keith Bell, Wayne Leshon, Regina Heyneman, Scott Putman, and Stephen McMaster.

I especially thank the Reverend Gary Jones for supporting my book and my soul as well, through illness, healing, the pandemic, and returning to work.

I appreciate my family, who listened to my endless frustrations and intermittent good news, including Mike Hart and Patty Rourke, Marie and Mason Ayers, Tim and Veronica Bouquet, Elizabeth and Bob Bouquet, and the Reverend Anne Miner Hart Pearson.

I thank my devoted feline muses, Amanda and Starlight.

Huge thanks to you all.

As this book goes to print, I especially honor my dear friend and editor, Dick Foote, who grew up in Seneca Falls and was a confidant when I began the park and all the rest of my life. He worked to cheer me on when I was ill and wanted to stop working on this book. After I began work on this last, seventh, version, he then did a complete edit of the manuscript shortly before his tragic loss to cancer in 2023.