When he was honored on Monday night by New Yorkers for Parks, philanthropist Arthur Ross had a power crowd at his table that included the president of the American Museum of Natural History, Ellen Futter; the president of Barnard College, Judith Shapiro, and Mr. Ross’s granddaughter, Caroline Ross, a senior at Horace Mann School.

“She’s an oboist and she’s going to Michigan School of Music and the Honors College in the fall,” he said.

“He’s taught me everything,” she said, “especially how to dance.” And what about park time? “Oh yes, we walk together in the Pinetum.” That would be the one in Central Park, named after Mr. Ross.

Those Parkies are a familial bunch, which must be a positive effect of looking after – and spending time enjoying – the city’s 29,000 acres of municipal parkland.

Honoree Joseph Rose’s parents, Daniel and Joanna Rose, attended the event, although not at their son’s table. The former city planning commission chairman sat with restaurateur Danny Meyer – the two share Madison Square Park as a cause – while his parents sat with the president of Hunter College, Jennifer Raab, and her husband, the journalist Michael Goodwin. When their son accepted his award, they beamed.

The warmth of the event, which raised $640,000, wasn’t just among blood relations. Honoree Michael Grobstein got a hug from the chairwoman of the gala, Catherine Morrison, who writes a gardening column in the Staten Island Advance.

The event drew the major shapers of New York’s parks from the past, present, and future, including the first curator of Central Park, Henry Hope Reed; the parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe; garden designer Lynden Miller, who led the campaign to plant daffodil bulbs in the city after September 11, 2001; landscape architect Peter Rothschild, and the designers of the High Line, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio.

agordon@nysun.com