A historian as well, he challenged, with a muckraker’s spirit, the political and corporate establishment of a country he adopted after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe.
“It’s sad because it’s quite a good statue,” said local writer and historian Janis Ringuette. “Many don’t notice it because it’s hiding in the foliage. But a few months ago, someone put a disposable mask on it. It stayed for a while. That was kind of neat, because it didn’t hurt her and it’s part of what’s happening now.” In her book Beacon Hill Park History, Ringuette wrote that the bronze bust erected in the park in 1962 was actually the second bust made of the Queen, a replacement for a concrete version that suffered similar indignities.