First-ever biography explores Schaefer’s lifelong efforts to protect Adirondacks
By Bill Buell May 18, 2025
The Daily Gazette
NISKAYUNA — Paul Schaefer realized the possible conflicts that might arise from being both a builder of beautiful stone homes and an advocate for New York’s wilderness area.
By all accounts, however, he managed to handle both realms just fine. So much so, in fact, he even surprised himself.
“He often told me that he didn’t know how he did it,” said David Gibson, whose book, “A Force For Nature: Paul Schaefer’s Adirondack Coalitions,” was published by Syracuse University Press last month. “He would say to me, ‘How did I balance the one with the other?’ And it really is amazing how he was so successful in two different and contradictory spheres.”
In the book, the first biography of Schaefer, Gibson mostly focuses on Schaefer’s efforts to keep the Adirondacks wild. He writes that, from 1931 to his death in 1996 at the age of 87, Schaefer’s love of the outdoors “matured into a passionate, protective and influential embrace of wilderness.”
Along with his older brother Vince, an atmospheric scientist at the General Electric Co., and younger brother Carl, a mason and a pioneer in the sport of downhill skiing, the Schaefers presented a unified front in the quest to save the mountains and forests of upstate New York from commercial development.
“They were extremely curious and very resourceful people, and I’m talking about the brothers and the sisters,” said Gibson, also referring to the two Schaefer girls, Margaret Allen and Gertrude Fogarty. “It was an amazing family. Vince was the oldest and Paul kind of put him on a pedestal, and Carl is a little overlooked because he was the youngest. But [Carl] was an ingenious man who knew how to get things done, and Paul drew on both Vince and Carl for different things.”
“[Paul] relied on Vince for scientific information and geologic history, and he and Carl were real close,” said Gibson, a longtime Saratoga County resident. “[Carl] was unsung and didn’t feel the need to draw a lot of attention to himself, but Carl worked very closely with Paul.”
None of the Schaefer boys attended college, and Paul, according to Gibson, never officially graduated from Nott Terrace High School in Schenectady. Born in Albany in 1908, four years after Vince, Paul was still quite young when the family moved to the Rotterdam area a few years later. His parents, Rose and Peter Schaefer, encouraged all of their children to explore the woods, streams and forested hills of that part of Schenectady County. And then in 1921, the family took their first trip into the Adirondacks, cementing Paul’s love and passion for the great outdoors. Around 10 years later, with Vince serving as the catalyst, the Mohawk Valley Hiking Club was formed.
“I think it was Vince’s energy and passion that started it, and then the others fell into it pretty quickly,” said Gibson. “It was also how Paul met his wife, Carolyn. A number of relationships happened through that club, and it had a great impact on all these young people.”
It was Paul, however, who led the charge to save New York’s wild areas, forming the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and serving as its vice president for 40 years. He lobbied nine different governors during those four decades, arguing for legislation on several environmental fronts, including laws that imposed constitutional restrictions on dam projects in the Adirondacks.
Gibson got to know Schaefer when he started working for the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks in 1987. He is currently the managing partner of another nonprofit group, Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve.
“I liked him right away, and I realized back in 1987 how much he had already accomplished,” Gibson said of Schaefer. “He was a great guy. He had a temper but he got over it quickly and never held a grudge. He encouraged people to try different things and he always made you feel that you were a keystone in his work. He made you feel good about what you were doing.”
According to the town of Rotterdam historian Jim Schaefer, Vince’s son, his Uncle Paul’s contributions to the Adirondacks can’t be overstated.
“He was the perfect person at the right time to help in the legal challenges to the ‘forever wild’ clause of the state constitution,” said Schaefer, referring to the legislation that created the Adirondack Park in 1892. “He was a gifted storyteller — gardening clubs, scout troops, hunting clubs, legislative hearings — and he sold the vision to them all with his passion for preserving wild places.”
Along with his brothers, Paul Schaefer had plenty of helpers in preserving the Adirondacks, in particular former General Electric scientist John Apperson. Nearly 30 years older than Schaefer, Apperson was his mentor, according to Ellen Apperson Brown, the great-niece of John Apperson.
“Historians may wonder how these two men — 30 years apart in age — developed such a close bond with one another,” said Apperson Brown, who in 2017 produced a book about her great-uncle, “John Apperson’s Lake George.” “But they were kindred spirits. Paul probably started hearing about John Apperson because of his involvement with efforts to fight the proposed bobsled run on state land [outside Lake Placid]. Paul became a very important leader in Appy’s organizational chart, and a very dear friend. Both of them lived lives that should serve as inspiration for each of us today.”
Gibson got plenty of input from Apperson Brown and Jim Schaefer for his book, and also got to know former town of Niskayuna historian Linda Champagne, another person who chronicled much of Paul Schaefer’s life.
“She played a central role in motivating me to write this book,” Gibson said of Champagne. “She interviewed him a couple of times and wrote stories about him in the Niskayuna Journal. For me, she opened up the varied life of Paul Schaefer because she interviewed so many people over the years that lived in homes built by Schaefer. So all of her work helped me move forward with my book,”
In 1979, when Schaefer was awarded a doctorate by Union College, Champagne wrote in The Daily Gazette that “there is no measure of the time and effort he has invested in this,” referring to Schaefer’s dedication to preserving the Adirondacks. “He has traveled its waters and lands, he has pondered its character and needs. And in his wisdom and words he has influenced men and women from governors to ordinary citizenry to cherish and protect this magnificent mountain world.”
Coming up with just the right title for the book wasn’t easy, according to Gibson, but he’s happy with the idea of making reference to Schaefer’s power of persuasion and his ability to get others to help.
“We went through a number of titles, and it really wasn’t my first choice,” said Gibson, a Maine native and a Harvard University graduate. “But ‘A Force for Nature’ came to mind, my wife and I talked about it, and then Syracuse [University Press] suggested it too, so we went with that.”
The subtitle specifically was heartily endorsed by Schaefer’s two children, Evelyn Greene and Monica Wiitanen.
“This is a book about building coalitions, and Eveyln and Monica were insistent that this be a book about that,” said Gibson. “It’s not any one of us that accomplishes great things. We do it working with others and joining forces.”
Schaefer’s efforts have had an impact well beyond New York’s borders.
“Schaefer’s work in New York directly inspired the drafting and passage of the National Wilderness Preservation Act of 1964,” said Gibson. “I hope the biography sheds light on these and many other contributions he made and inspires us all to carry on his work today.”
The book is available at the Open Door Book Store in Schenectady for $27.95, and can also be purchased online at Syracuse University Press and Amazon.