Starquest has found a brand new garden to inhabit and improve.
Once, as Henry J. Stern, he was the longest serving Commissioner of Parks in New York’s history surpassing the great Robert Moses.
Now this bright, experienced, political showman and practical administrator with an ethereal sense which didn’t seem to go with the resume but surely existed, has a grander, more spacious ‘park’ to wield his magic. And whatever the politics up there, wield it he will.
In his day he served Mayor Ed Koch and Mayor Rudy Giuliani (and for a short time Mayor Michael Bloomberg…so if he could do that, he can do anything in his new location. The spirit was always willing, the mind, imagination and behavior always up to the task.
The New York Times has written a wonderful obituary of Henry in its March 29th edition. We’re sure all of his friends and admirers have read it. Interestingly they skipped one tiny detail in Henry’s long and successful career…he served as Chairman of the Liberal Party for a little more than two years. He did so at the request of members of the Liberal Party leadership who refused to let the Liberal Party fade into history when after 64 continuous years as the oldest acknowledged “third” party in American history, it lost its ballot status.
Supporting Andrew M. Cuomo for Governor in 2002, the Liberal Party failed to receive 50,000 votes on its line to retain permanent ballot status under New York State Election Law when Cuomo quit the race before the Democratic primary. The party made no attempt to replace him on the ballot and while it achieved 70-80,000 for its candidates for Attorney-General and Comptroller, it could not make that happen for a non-candidate.
Henry had a short career with the Liberal Party. He had a brilliant legal mind and seemed on the verge of a career but then turned to government administration in 1962. After working as an assistant to two borough Presidents, he became executive director of the Parks Department under Commissioner Thomas Hoving and then went to work for Bess Myerson in Consumer Affairs.
He turned to elective politics in 1973 running on the Liberal Party line for city councilman at large in Manhattan. He was reelected in 1977 and served for four more years becoming known as a tireless attendee at meetings throughout the borough, espousing liberal causes that would help the community.
Once he became Ed Koch’s Commissioner of Parks his political connection to the Liberal Party faded. Henry’s brilliance at parks was highlighted by his ability to keep New York’s splendid parkland in the public eye through all sorts of showbiz ways and means. He had a decidedly theatrical flair and his love of movies was well known. He used that sense wisely and often and then reached out to some of New York’s elites to provide a long-lasting private fundraising response unknown in any government area…one so successful that it could make up for the frequent shortfalls in city budgets.
And so for all these reasons it made sense for the Liberal Party to seek leadership from Henry as it tried to reestablish its political influence in New York and beyond. Henry accepted that responsibility in his characteristic way ”Alright, I’ll do it”. We believed that his public reputation, media sense and liberal policy beliefs would provide the direction and media attention the party needed.
But as luck would have it, Henry had formed and was deeply dedicated to his New York Civic, a non-profit community organization dedicated to teaching the very meaning of good government to all who would read his writings and share his point of view.
The Liberal Party’s needs to get into the fray of city and state politics too often put Henry into conflict with his non-profit, non-partisan status as head of a non-political, non-profit organization and he chose that side over the more political side.
He did keep the party moving forward until it could find new leadership and he quietly stepped aside “OK, that makes sense”.
Henry remained a wise and thoughtful counselor during the past twelve years, attending meetings when his health permitted, keeping in telephone touch when things got tougher. His caring about people never ceased; his ideas about how to help them were always part of our conversations. We didn’t always agree but when he said “Good luck”, we always knew he meant it.
While we never quite found one of his famous park nicknames that he loved to pin on people he knew and worked with, he knew that we thought highly of the choices he made for mutual friends and acquaintances but none better than his own.
Starquest will be missed not because of his extraordinary successes in New York but because right or wrong, left or center, he was a mensch.
I recall him at Party meetings wherein he always gained my respect.