August Heckscher II

August Heckscher II (September 16, 1913 – April 5, 1997) was an American public intellectual and author whose work explored the American liberalism of political leaders including Woodrow Wilson. His parents divorced in 1927 and his mother remarried to John M. P. Thatcher in 1931. His brother was Gustave Maurice Heckscher Jr. His maternal grandfather was Harmon B. Vanderhoef (d. 1941).

He attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire.

In 1962, he began his service as the first White House Special Consultant on the Arts as the coordinator of cultural matters appointed by President John F. Kennedy. He was in this role until 1963.

In 1967, he was appointed by New York City Mayor John Lindsay as Parks Commissioner of New York City, succeeding Thomas Hoving, who left to become the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1968, Lindsay appointed him to be the first Administrator of The Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Administration (PRCA) was created to consolidate the city's more than 50 agencies into a dozen "superagencies." His tenure as Commissioner/Administrator was noted for the 1967 concert in the park by Barbra Streisand, which was attended by 250,000 people, the first New York City Marathon, which was held in Central Park in 1970, and a number of very large-scale antiwar demonstrations, in the park, for which permits were issued.

Personal life In 1941, Heckscher was married to Claude Chevreux (d. 2008). Claude was the daughter of Charles Chevreux of Clermont-Ferrand, France, the Prefect of the Puy-de-Dôme at Clermont-Ferrand and formerly of the French legation in Algeria and French Morocco. Together, they were the parents of: Stephan married Donna Elizabeth Hunt in 1966. Philip H. Heckscher Charles C. Heckscher (b. 1949), a professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment at Rutgers University.

Heckscher died on April 5, 1997, at New York Hospital. His widow, Claude, died in 2008.