Arts and Letters

As I undertake writing this tribute to an esteemed friend and a gallant spirit I feel an overpowering inadequacy. He was one of this country's foremost practitioners of one of the oldest of the Fine Arts, "the art of planning the land for human use and enjoyment," landscape architecture.

"Mike," as he was known to his associates and to his friends across the length and breadth of this land, came from a humble home; he remained humble throughout his life. Success never brought pomposity or arrogance. He was respected by his fellow workers, his clients and by a host of friends, for he had a warm and generous heart. Through his great ability in his chosen profession he acquired many well-deserved honors in the course of a long and distinguished career.

Mike was born in Warner, near Syracuse, New York, on March 6, 1904. His father had served as superintendent of parks in Syracuse and, consequently, Mike early acquired a desire to become a landscape architect, although his father hoped that he might study law. Mike often spoke of a gentleman, a Mr. MacKenzie, whom he highly respected and who took a special interest in his future career. This gentleman encouraged Mike to seek a university education where he might find courses of study leading to a professional degree of his choosing. Accordingly, Mike entered the College of Architecture at Cornell University and elected landscape architecture as his major study. He graduated in June, 1928 and immediately applied for a fellowship in landscape architecture at the American Academy in Rome. The fellowships were competitive; the jury selected Mike Rapuano's work from among the submissions of several other aspirants. He went to Rome and took up residence at the Academy on the Janiculum, the Capitol's highest hill. While abroad he traveled widely, visiting Europe's great architectural monuments and gardens; he also gave attention to the design of the important cities and their growth from Ancient through Medieval and Renaissance times. After three years at the Academy, Mike returned to the United States prepared to take up professional practice.

In 1931 he married Catherine Reid Peck, whom he met in Rome; she survives him with a daughter Marga (Mrs. Charles Rogers), a son Michael, and four grandchildren.

A few years after his marriage, Mike bought a large tract of rolling farmland, through which a lively brook runs, near Newtown, Pennsylvania; a charming late 18th-century stone house on the property, which he called Reidina Farms, became his home. For many years he kept a large herd of Ayrshire cattle and made this a hobby as well as a profitable enterprise, the while he commuted daily to his New York office to carry on the professional practice of landscape architecture.

Mike's devotion to his family, his farm and his profession gave him little time for social activities in New York, where he seldom spent evenings except when he attended the meetings of the Board of Trustees of the American Academy in Rome at the Century Club. He served on this Board for almost forty years, ten of those years as the President of the Academy.

I shall not catalogue Mike Rapuano's achievements which were many, varied, and significant, for it is the man to whom we do honor. One of his close friends, a fellow in landscape architecture of the American Academy in Rome of his vintage, wrote the following tribute to him:

Mike was one of my greatest heroes; he had tremendous talent, a marvelous personality and he contributed vigorously to the advancement of our profession. I owe a great deal to him and mourn deeply his passing so early from the scene of his activity.

Michael Rapuano was a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Academician of the National Academy of Design, Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Urban Consultants to the Federal Highway Administrator, a member of the National Commission of Fine Arts (1958-1962) and of the Art Commission of the City of New York (1939-1947).

In July of this year, when in Europe on a holiday, I learned that Mike had been in the office for what he deemed to be his last visit. From the deck of a ship in the harbor of Helsinki, I sent him the following lines and, upon learning of his sudden and untimely death on September 13, 1975, I dedicated them to his memory:

For five years short of half a century
We worked together in full harmony.
Now, as we part, I know that we shall be
United in a long, rich memory.
We've made important contributions to our art
Where our creativeness will ever be a part
Of history and thus we justified our start
In partnership. In leadership we set a mark!
Our friendship has remained unbroken through the years,
Integrity has been our banner and our guide,
Devotion to high standards brought respect of peers;
May happiness be yours for pride is justified!

Now, in the autumn of a most rewarding life, You still have many years to witness this world's strife!

G.D.C.