Gary is currently working on a biography of the ideas of a remarkable conservationist, John Ripley Forbes who died last year at the age of 93. Forbes was at various times a national hero of sorts, featured in the Saturday Evening Post, Time, Life, Reader’s Digest, etc., receiving regular kudos from the likes of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, and Ladybird Johnson. A protégé of the famous conservationist William T. Hornaday, as a young man Forbes worked as an ornithologist and taxidermist, collecting specimens—at times from remote places—for the American Museum of Natural History, the Boston Children's museum, etc. He would go on to utterly transform the natural history museum, establishing some 136 facilities in 36 states, most of them centered around children. Time Magazine has referred to him as the Johnny Appleseed of nature museums.

Forbes was arguably as important as any other person in keeping the natural world very much alive, at a time when Americans were becoming increasingly urbanized. What allowed him this success, this carrying of nature to the city, was a profound commitment to using science to spark innate wonder and curiosity in children. One example of this was his idea of "animal lending libraries" which he launched at various children's museums in the 1940's. In his later years he also became well known as a preservationist—establishing, for example, "semi-wilderness" preserves in metropolitan Atlanta . That work remains today at the cutting edge of urban space planning.

Among the many museums he established, his legacy also includes the Southeast Land Preservation Trust and the John Ripley Forbes Big Trees Forest Preserve.