In Memoriam: Henry Lee (1925-2024), Boston's Civic Leader, Parks Advocate and Historian

 

Photo Courtesy of Friends of the Public Garden

Henry Lee, Boston’s beloved civic leader, parks advocate, teacher and historian, died on Monday, August 12, 2024, from cardiac arrest. He was 99.

Lee is best admired and renowned in Boston for spearheading a grass roots movement in the 1970s to prevent the development of high rise buildings encroaching on the perimeter of the Public Garden, which would have cast shadows across the Garden as well as Boston Common, the nation’s oldest park, formed in 1634.

Henry Lee and Boston Parks Commissioner Larry Dwyer Plant a Tree on Boston Common on Arbor Day, 1989. Photo Courtesy of the Boston Common Management Plan

The successful effort led Henry and others to create the Friends Of The Public Garden, one of the nation’s most effective open space advocacy groups, whose mission is to renew, care for and advocate for Boston Common, Public Garden and Commonwealth Avenue Mall. The group works with Boston Parks and Recreation Department to support the care of the city's three historic green spaces through tree plantings, sculpture care, turf maintenance and programming.

Photo Courtesy of Friends of the Public Garden

After leading the Friends group for 41 years, Lee retired in 2011, and stayed on as president emeritus until his death.  He was succeeded as president of the Friends of the Public Garden by Liz Vizza, who has led the organization since then.

Patrick Tracy, Photo Courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society

Lee also had a lifelong affection and pride in his illustrious Irish ancestry. On his mother's side, he was descended from Patrick Tracy, a hero of the American Revolution who had immigrated to Newburyport from County Wexford in 1735. Tracy made a fortune in shipping, and “was a member of the committee of safety in 1774 and…a supporter of the provincial government during the Revolution,” according to Massachusetts Historical Society.

 

Following in the footsteps of Tracy and other ancesters, Henry was a longtime member of the Charitable Irish Society, a group formed in 1737 to help immigrants who had arrived in Boston. He served as president of the Society in 1980. 

"Henry Lee was a good friend to not just our group, but also to the many Irish people who the Charitable Irish Society has assisted," said Kelley Lynn Kassa, past president, Charitable Irish Society. "Henry was also a cousin of Henry L. Shattuck, a long-time member of the Charitable Irish Society and our treasurer for twelve years."

Lee was co-author with H. A. Crosby Forbes of a scholarly book called Massachusetts Help to Ireland During Famine. It was published in 1967, as part of a commemorative exhibition at the Forbes House Museum in Milton. The book gives a perceptive account of the famous voyage of the USS Jamestown, which left the Charlestown Navy Yard in March 1847 carrying 800 tons of food, clothing and medical supplies to the victims of the Irish Famine in Cobh, County Cork.

"The most appalling fact to contemplate, after that of starvation itself, is the powerlessness of society then to prevent a problem from becoming a disaster - the worst disaster to overcome Europe since the Black Death of the 14th century, and the severest decimation of a people until the extermination of the Jews during World War II,” Lee and Forbes wrote. "Men were forced to watch a nation starve and to witness the collapse of its social and economic fabric, helpless to do more than apply palliatives."

Lee was active in the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative, a non-profit group formed in 1997 by Dr. Robert Krim and others interested in promoting local history to educators and tourists.

“Henry certainly lived an incredible life and played such a critical role not only in preserving the Public Garden but also in the world of Boston history,” said Krim. “He gave me some of the best advice I ever got with some of our challenges with the Collaborative. He treated everyone so well, and yet was the ultimate Bostonian.”

 

Henry Lee and David McCullough, Photo Courtesy of Friends of the Public Garden

American historian David McCullough was a great admirer of Lee and once compared him to Jimmy Stewart in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” according to a story in the Beacon Hill Patch published in 2011.

One of Henry’s ongoing passions was restoring the Robert Gould Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial, a national tribute to the Black Regiment of Massachusetts that fought in the Civil War. In 1897, Lee’s grandfather, also named Henry Lee, was involved in the unveiling of the memorial, which was created by Irish-born sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens. 

Friends President Liz Vizza notes that at the onset of the Civil War, "Henry’s grandfather advised then-governor John Andrew about young men who would be good candidates to lead Civil War regiments. The Lee and Shaw families were close, and he recommended Robert Gould Shaw to lead the 54th. He then was one of a 3-person committee that chose Augustus Saint-Gaudens to design the memorial."

The Shaw Memorial. Photo courtesy of Irish Heritage Trail

Nearly a century later, in the early 1980s, the memorial had fallen into disrepair, so Henry and the Friends formed a Save-the-Shaw group to advocate for the Shaw Memorial, which by then had become a national shrine.  The efforts to save the Shaw Memorial led to the creation of a city-wide Adopt a Statue program by Mary Shannon of the Boston Art Commission in 1987, according to history writer Susan Wilson.

On June 1, 2022, the refurbished Shaw 54th Memorial was rededicated, after restoration of the bronze memorial was carried out at Skylight Studios by sculptor Robert Shure and his team of specialists. It was a unique partnership with National Park Service, Boston Parks and Recreation Department, Friends of the Public Garden and Museum of African American History.

Henry Lee was a true friend of Boston and its memorials, parks and people. Rest in peace Henry. 

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin