Excerpts from Sam Pesin’s speech (6/14/08) at Liberty Island on 50th anniversary of Morris Pesin’s legendary canoe trip (6/13/58), after he and his sister Judy reenacted the canoe trip in a 14 ft skiff, built by John Tichenor, co-founder and 1st president of The Friends of LSP, and paddled by LSP Superintendent Josh Osowski.

 

Morris Pesin, the “Father” of Liberty State Park    1911-1992

My father once said that he was ready to do anything to dramatize the park idea except jump from the Torch into a net. The Jersey Journal editor Gene Farrell suggested a row boat but when my father got to the old pier, there was a reporter and a canoe waiting.
 
As a reporter once declared about the canoe trip, probably no other New Jersey boat trip
since George Washington crossed the Delaware had greater consequences. 50 years ago, my father paddled  into history from JCs junkstrewn, waterfront wasteland of decaying piers and abandoned railyards to the world’s greatest symbol of freedom and democracy.
 
As the plaque in the park’s visitor center states, “Morris Pesin’s imagination, dedication,
and perseverance were prime factors in making the dream of Liberty State Park a reality”
and today we celebrate the legendary canoe ride that started it all.

With faith in the power of his dream of a waterfront park and faith in God, he never gave
up during his 18 year campaign to create LSP. He was blessed to see LSP open on  6/14/76, as America’s Bicentennial gift to America, and he was blessed to see people enjoying the park for its first 16 years. As Audrey Zapp, the park’s Godmother, stated, my father’s vision changed the whole concept of what the waterfront could and should be used for. The park was a gift to all who yearn to breathe free on public open space, and LSP was the catalyst for the development of Jersey City’s Gold Coast.
 
My father’s vision of a free and green family park with open space and open vistas became a reality because of his leadership and that of his fellow pioneers, Ted Conrad and Audrey Zapp, and also because of a Jersey City grassroots citizen campaign.  Morris Pesin saw the park’s potential to provide a meaningful experience of our diverse democracy by its welcoming people of all cultural backgrounds to share the experience of relaxation and recreation. At LSP, on any day of the year, but especially on July 4^th with fireworks, music and friendly people with many shades of skin color, one can feel the greatness of our nation’s founding principles and the basic truth of all religions, that brotherly love and equality is what the world must have.
 
He was dedicated to the ideals of America and the examples of his parents who landed
nearby at Ellis Island. My father worked for justice and brotherhood and was a true hero. After the park opened, he, Audrey and Ted led several statewide battles against LSP commercialization and privatization plans. Since 1988, The Friends of LSP, now 20 years old, have been in the forefront of those battles. The universal message of Morris Pesin’s legacy and example is that your civic activism, compassion, independent thinking and volunteerism, will make a difference in improving the world.