The History of Grassroots Battles for a Free & Green Liberty State Park

ABOUT SAM PERSIN

Sam Pesin is the president of the all-volunteer Friends of Liberty State Park and the son of Morris Pesin, known as the “father” of Liberty State Park. Sam’s father had the vision for and spearheaded the 18-year campaign to transform the desolate Jersey City waterfront wasteland into a free and green park for all to enjoy behind Lady Liberty and then his father co-led major battles against park privatization and commercialization and for a Central Park-type urban park.

As Friends’ president and when he was a preschool teacher for over 40 years, Sam has worked to continue his parents and grandparents’ activist values in trying to make the world a better place.

Sam started advocating for Liberty State Park, immediately after his father’s passing in 1992, when a 150-acre golf course plan threatened the park’s future. As Friends’ president since 1995, Sam has successfully co-led many statewide grassroots battles to advocate against LSP commercialization and privatization. The Friends’ mission is to “preserve, protect, improve, conserve and promote LSP”. When not fighting battles, the Friends have focused on supporting park improvements such as new playgrounds, and funding over 1000 trees, the park’s garden program, bulletin boards, kayaks and other improvements.

As Friends’ president, Sam encourages park supporters to be engaged in park issues. He is pleased with the new NJDEP Master Plan emphasizing a free and green park and which was based on over 5000 public comments in a democratic “Revitalization” process. He is looking forward to the public celebrating the park’s 50th birthday on June 14, 2026.

Morris Pesin’s Legendary Canoe Trip & 

the Launch of Liberty State Park

On the foggy, drizzly morning of June 13, 1958, Morris Pesin (1911-1992) made his historic eight-minute canoe trip to the Statue of Liberty. Pesin wanted to dramatize the close proximity of the Jersey City shoreline to the Statue and he brought with him a Jersey Journal reporter to document the event. The Journal published an article, sparking public interest in Pesin’s vision to create a public open space and park with access to the iconic Statue, rising from the waterfront wasteland of decaying piers and abandoned railroad yards.

A year before his canoe trip, Morris and his wife Ethel had traveled to Liberty Island from his hometown of Jersey City with their two children, Sam and Judy. They had endured a frustrating three-hour trip which included a Holland Tunnel traffic jam and a long wait in line for the ferry in Manhattan. He looked to the west and was struck by two things. One was that the Statue was very close to Jersey City and the other was that the desolate waterfront was a shameful background for the sacred Statue.

A few days after the 1958 canoe trip, Pesin pronounced to the Jersey City Commission (the forerunner of the City Council), “We have here at our doorstep, America’s greatest shrine – the Statue of Liberty – and we have failed to realize its potential.”

Morris Pesin earned the title of the “father” of Liberty State Park. He spent eighteen years spearheading the crusade to create a waterfront park with access to the Statue of Liberty. His vision was realized on June 14,1976, the year of America’s Bicentennial, with the official opening of Liberty State Park. For the next sixteen years, Pesin continued to work with other park advocates to guide the park’s progress and ensure it remained a free, open space for people of all backgrounds to enjoy. In 1985, Morris was presented with the Volunteer Action Award by President Ronald Reagan at a White House ceremony.