(Comments by Martha (Josselyn) DeVoe about her father, excerpted from transcript of taped interview, 5 December 2004. See the footnote source for more complete transcript of the interview.)
When my father designed a house for someone, he'd make a cardboard little model of it for them -- very lovely little things with a landscape he'd put on -- I don't know whether he'd use the trees. He was also interested in a great many things --the stars, microscopes. He had a book he was very fond of: "The Two Worlds." I don't know whether you have that or not. He said that the world of the stars and the world of the microscopes. [Note by H. D: this must be "Two New Worlds" by E. E. Fournier d'Albe, 1907; I have his copy of the book.] He used to take me with my -- they gave me a painting box for Christmas -- Nancy has it now -- and we'd go in the woods and paint, but I didn't do very good. For earning money I used to paint Christmas cards, and he'd always make a sample for me. He was good at chess. Also I've got a book over here that -- he used to make rabbit . . . [hand] shadows. But he had a lot of hobbies. Of course, making scenery -- he used his architectural thing to make scenery [for toy theaters for his grandsons], I mean his painting skills. And, then, he was always making things. Of course, the history [time-line] chart was something that Mike [Webert] has now. That was something, he wanted to get me interested in history, well I didn't -- he had a lot of hobbies. He had a printing press . . . Unfortunately I gave away the [engravings] -- during the war they wanted everybody to give in the, whatever it was in there, copper or something. . . . Another thing: he spent about once a week [with] Mr. Fairley, who was the minister at the Unitarian Church. He'd come over and they'd discuss something. He often used what they talked about in the sermons, Mr. Fairley did. But they scared the life out of me sometimes, because . . . they'd talk about "is that chair there, or do we just think it's there?" And that nearly drove me crazy. . . . Somewhere, he told me he was a runner-up for the Lincoln Memorial [design competition] in Washington. . . . My father was quite an actor. He was the lead in a number of parts at the Fireside Players. He had a wonderful voice and a very good command of playing. . . .