"As much as he was known around the world as a troubadour of idealism, Pete Seeger was at bottom a plain-spoken citizen of Beacon, N.Y."

"About 65 years ago, he built a one-room log cabin on a hillside on the town’s edge, hand-hewing the wood, laying down the stone foundation, eventually adding a bedroom for his wife, Toshi, and himself, always splitting the logs for the fireplace and wood stove himself. From that base, he worked to clean up the river that flowed nearby — his beloved Hudson, which was suffering death by pollution at the time.

John Cronin, the former head of the environmental group Riverkeeper, remembers spying a solitary older man about two years ago on the Beacon waterfront scooping litter into a plastic bag. When the man stood up he recognized the signature ramrod bearing of Mr. Seeger, his slender six-foot longtime friend. "

Joseph Bergerjan reports for the New York Times January 28, 2014. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Pete Seeger on Climate Change in 2007" (New York Times) [3]

"Pete Seeger's Advocacy for Hudson River Endures" (Lower Hudson Valley Journal News) [4]