For George Delacorte Adorning standalone article NY Times 05 17 79N
G+yngta l.) 1979 The New York 'Times
tr04*,�tolitan Report
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut
For George Delacorte,,,- Adorning
TOl�e Citpls a Dream'C.,6rpe. Tiaue
By LINDA CHARLTON
`. 1n this age of angst, George Dela-
come i an outrageous anomaly. He is
rich and -fiat ashamed of it; he likes giv-
ing lavish presents and getting credit
for it, and he is probably, even, a happy
e ..man. '
He also Will be 85 years old on June
20, which is worth mentioning largely
because 'it becomes almost irrelevant
within a few seconds of meeting hire. It
is note that his lean; tanned frame is
sprightly, or that his voice and manner
could be those of almost any age above
youngest manhood.
It'0 : , just that for George 'i; Lomas
Delacorte, aself-made very rich man
and a self -designated adgrner of his na-
tive city, there is so much else going on
that ' it seems unlikely.he gives much
thought to being nearly 85.
While it is true that he has been "re-
tired" from Dell Publishing for more
than five years, it is also true that
every day in season -- that is, when he
is living in his. 20-room apartment on
Fifth Avenue in the 80's and not in
Palm Beach or Connecticut or skiing at
Klosters -- he still walks the two miles
or so to his office. And always,. both
ways, he tries to go through Central
Park.
He's got a lot of things to look at
there, like the Delacorte Theater, the
Alice in Wonderland statue; the zoo's
musical clock with its revolving ani-
mals or the Columbus Circle fountain.
Of course, he could vary his route
and still find, plenty of objects for his
fond, proprietary interest. There's the
fountain down in City Hall Plaza, the
gates at Columbia. University, another
fountain at Bowling Green and the jet
d'eau in the East River (as soon as the
current mechanical problems are
solved and it is back in operation).
Soon, if all goes according to plan and it usually does, for George Dela-
Alice In Wonderland statue in Central Park
Continued on Page B7
i rw cvew r oric i ins/ rani noaerroa
George T. Delacorte at Central park Zoo's clock
Ex -Lufthansa Agent Guilty
In � s M"Ou1lzon AirpoYt ? 'heft
By DAVID BIRD
A 46-year,-old former Lufthansa cargo
wald said he hid the money first in a gar -
agent was-foiuid guilty yesterday of help-
bage dump.
mg to plan and carry out the $6 million
We
Later, he said, he and Mr, rner re-
armed robbery last December at the air-
trieved the money and buried it in Mr.
line's Kennedy International Airport
backyard.
cargo terminal.
.Gruenewald's
Mr. Gruenewald testified that he be -
Louis Werner, the only person charged
came extremely nervous and did not feel
so tar in the case, was convicted of being
the $5,000 cut he received was worth it.
the inside man in what turned out to be.
He continued:
.the largest cash robbery in the nation's.
"I told Werner not to bother me again
history. None of the $5 million in currency
with any money like that. It was not
and $1 million in jewels .that was takerl
worth putting my job on the line , for
has been recovered.
$5,000. I said it would have to be a malicm.
Mr. Werner was also found guilty ' of
We started to plan the big heist. We knew
stealing $227000 irk foreign currency from
Lufthansa always stpred $3 million to $5
the same Lufthansa terminal in 1976.
million in the valuables room, and it was
The jury, which began its deliberations
for us pretty attractive. We talked Tre-
at 4:15 P.M. Tuesday and announced its
quently about a big heist. And by August,
verdict at 3 : 35 P.M. yesterday, found Mr.'
1978, we had a plan."
Werner guilty of three of the six charges
The plan they developed, according to
stern ling from the two thefts. He faces.
the prosecution, is virtually the same one.
up,to25 years in prison. '
used by the five masked gunmen who
During Mr. Werner's 10-day trial in
burst into the Lufthansa cargo building
Federal District Court in Brooklyn before
and grabbed the cargo of cash and jew-
Judge Mark A. Costantino and the jury of
elry on Dec.11 at 3 A.M.
10 men and two women, the prosecution
Two other men, Angelo Sepe and
relied heavily on testimony by Peter
James Burke, both known criminals and
Gruenewald, a fellow Lufthansa em-
described by investigators as suspects,
ployee and a former close friend of Mr.
have been arrested on charges of violat-
Werner's:
ing parole by associating with each other
Witness Describes Plotting
but have nct been charged with the Luft-
hansa robbery. y
Mr. Gruenewald said he had helped
Mr. Wemer's attorney, Stephen Laifer,
Mr. Werner, who had worked for the air-
charged that prosecution witnesses were
line for more than a decade, in an earlier
trying "to take themselves off the hook"
theft from Lufthansa and that the two of
and that the case against Mr. Werner was
them then ,.plotted in detail last year's
built on a "foundation of mud."
much larger robbery.
Also called by the prosecution was
Although he admitted his involvement
Janet Barbieri, Mr. Werner's 36-year-old
in the earlier theft, Mr. Gruenewald said
girlfriend. She resisted testifying at first,
he bowed out of last'year's robbery when
saying that problems with her heart
he grew disenchanted with the men re-
made it dangerous for her to take the
cruited to stage it.
stand.
Mr. Gruenewald was granted im-
Later, after she was arrested as. a ma-
munity from prosecution in exchange for
terial witness for the prosecution, slie col -
his testimony.
i lapsed thrti.-e times in court and at one
In describing the earlier theft, Mr.
time responded to questioning while lying
Gruenewald said that Mr. Werner turned
on a spectator's bench with a psychiatrist
up at his house shortly after midnight on
at her side.
Oct. 9.1976, with a cardboard box bearing
Mrs. Barbieri was released after testi-
a Lufthansa sticker and containing
Eying that Mr. Werner had told tier that
$22,000 in foreign currencv. Mr. Gruene-
"he never robbed Lulthans�a."
te,BeautifyingFibi Delacor
City Is Dream come True
Continued From Page B1
coi-Le, as for many men of wealth and
the determination to match the preci-
sion of their intentions — there will be
another fountain, this one in Times
Square, his fifth. He has always loved
fountains, and has in mind something
with Broadway's classic comedy -
tragedy theme for the newest Delaa-
corte fountain.
.What About a Waterfall?
And it almost certainly will have a
plaque somewhere neither vulgarly
proiclamdatory nor foolishly modest
proclaiming that lie gave the city this
founuain,l as he has given it thA:_-- o'tlhlers.
and the theater and statues, and would
like to give it a lot. of other things, in-
cluding a waterfall rippling down from
Belvedere Castle if the -engineering
snags can be -worked out. Mr. Dela-
corte loves giving things to the city,
and he isn't interested in the traditional
anonymity. On the contrary.
His clock . pleases him, with its bronze
carrousel with dancing animals that
perform every hour to the accompani-
ment of gay glockenspiel tunes. On a
recent aftemooft, the usual crowd of
several dozen had gathered below for
the hourly show as the hands touched 4
P.M. But the electronic timepiece that
controls the machinery — and keeps
more accurate time — was perhaps two
minutes behind. "We have a lot of trou-
ble with that clock," he .,---.aid with a
sigh.
Carousel's Timing Is Off
Then came the quarter-hours being
struck, and then of discouraging lapse
of a second or two before the monkeys
atop the carrousel began to strike the
time. The veterans in the crowd, who
knew wh"at, ,T?i,-as happening, were un-
mc_,z v- i n 2 ` � bait o began to drift away.
C_)
' ' I don't. like the gap, but there's noth-
ing you can do about it," he said as the
last of the four Strokess; faded and, after
a'nanosecond'SQ hesitatilon, the carrou
,a-
c "" Wigan to revolve. The bear, as al -
laved his tambourine, the ele-
phant: squ,-::°-zed an accordion and thl.e_
goat-, the e-ndearinlu of the ani-
mals. C 01 D- � T;Ifl--- 5a -:!!,. at played the flute.
The crrui�;-,J', charmed and sated with
snapshots, moved off, and George
Delacorte with it, smiling. "We change
#+,,n - usic four times a year," he said.
A fe-,w, steps away, he nudged his corn-
panlon aind said: "There's a man wi
two Dell books — I can tell by the blue-
green," meaning the color ' of the page -
edgings. lie started Dell in 1921.
Gazing Fondly at Alice
"I made $56,000 my first year, never
had a lost year," said this dapper man
of medium height, his black loafers
beating a regular, moderate pace along
the paths of the park. '"Die last yC.'a r 1.
was in the business I did $100 million in
business." He also proclaimed, "I'M
not interested in the business of buying
and selling,
What he is interested in lay around
the next few curves. I I Look at it — even
os
"' he -said, gazing• fondly at J! e'
today, 0
de Creeft's tran.nslation of Alice can�6_1 Set,V-
eral of her friends in'to a statu:!e. tll.ia',L
drays children as h. o t toast does butt, e r
(Mr. Delacorte calls Mr. de Creeft "old
de Creef t, he's 95. ")
A soccer ball lay nestled between the
paws of the White Rabbit, the stem of
.........
ft=W small
k I
X
t
whose watch is the only part of the
statue that has actu.ally had to be re-
placed, although much of it iskept bril-
liantly polished'by the�continuing pres-
sure of sma-11 feet., knees, hands and
adoratiol.a.
The Problem of Graffiti
Not far away is the bench nea-71
U
his late first wife. Nlarga-Acital, se,--: to
SUL il,11. the afternoons .in her wheelchair
her invalidism; the statue is in,
her honor be --cause she "loved all, chil-
dren." Even on this quiet late 10-L-- e `k,.Teekday
afternoon, a cansid,817--able nu(mber of
cb-D'dre,ri were returning thEll croml-oh-
m e w_., .
There Is ,2� continuing problem 01
grafts I' Ll Loda.,', Mr. Delacor�te noted,,
the message, was, "sex Is Fun Well
that's all right," he said. "I think I'll
leave it there.
Vandalis: of which graffiti are the
least parry. cost'hirri between $15,000 and
$20,000 a year. In making his gifts to the
city, he has also guaranteed their
maintenance for 15 years ("I"m going
to hive to be 1.15," -he says) and left
funds in his will for their upkeep. He
has a staff of three taking care of "my
things all around the city
It isn L so much that George Dela-
corte gives a great deal of his money
away, it is the way in which he does it
He doesn't just give some money for
this or that, but for a specific this and a
specific that.
Ile Roosevelt Island Jet
vtli have given rnon!5�_-y all my life to
various charities — still do,"' he said,
"but I then- I never saw any -thing for it,
never got any pleasure except just
mailing a check and getting a letter,"
And then there was the day when hfn,
was talking to the late Newbold Morris,
then Commissioner of Parks, about.
plans for a S11-lakespeare Theater in
Central Park.
It hasn't always been easy. Take
jet of water at the tip of Roosevelt- Is-
land, for instance. ,It has been plagued
with -problems sine the beginning,
such as the filth of the East Rimer that
clogs the water -intake s-, "-strem (filth
that has included, thus J;',-ar, 11 dro-u-vned
bodiesjAr. Delacorte, avems) and a hit-
and-run tug that caused major damage -
at one point. And the flo-,;',,er beds that
he optimistically plan"s, in, the parks
and then is forced to replace with con-
crete. But he has great visions for the
future, (,,ji would to rteldll-1 �ip
Plaza") even though tAhi :r-- r e ar,,,--- c, n. u. -
ing discourage nn, ents .
"But then" he said, striding toward
the 79th Street exit 01 the Park, and
home, "if yget coru4
wouldn't do am,17thing
THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDA
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I 1mm1ar.:_:ifion lns-pectors Added t
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WASHINGTON, May 16 (AP) — AT,-i
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additional 81 inspectors will be on duty at
I Name
i United States ports of entry beginning
j U to help detect illegal immigrants
and dl,_-oun-cerfeit- immigration documents,
tI -
�_hc- , u.sn"Ce DEDar-ment said tody. Sixty7-
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E, 0, f On e nev„j . n s pe c T o , i I bstationed
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r- ad rizona, with � �
lorn
lexas, Cal]"r 'i a anA
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