Estern began as a toymaker, developing the
Patti Playpal doll for
Ideal Toy Company. For much of his career, Estern worked out of a studio in
Brooklyn Heights, commonly working in
bronze. He also created sculptures of
Jimmy Carter (
Time, August 18, 1980),
J. Edgar Hoover (
Life, April 9, 1971), and
Princess Diana for covers of
Time and
Life. After small tweaks by Estern, it was re-dedicated in 2010, this time on a
granite base as originally intended by Estern, who said that "[m]arble is a very soft material, very rarely used for monuments". In 1990, Estern recreated three bronze plaques for the restoration of the
Sedgwick Memorial at
Cornwall Hollow, Connecticut, which had been vandalized the previous year. Perhaps Estern's best-known work is at the
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, which took decades to complete from inception to dedication. After working on them for over a decade, Estern created three sculptures which are in room 3 of the memorial: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Fala. Controversially, the nine-foot-tall President Roosevelt figure is depicted sitting in a wheelchair. In 2002, the
statue of Fiorello H. La Guardia was unveiled in
Greenwich Village, New York. Estern had been selected to create the monument years earlier, in 1988. LaGuardia is depicted mid-stride by Estern, who spoke positively about the reception to his choice, saying "I got letters from people in all parts of the country who said, 'That's La Guardia.'" Estern based the work on "many, many still photographs and also the frame-by-frame study of many newsreels". Estern twice served as president of the
National Sculpture Society, once from 1994 to January 1997, and again from 2005 to 2007. He was also a member of the
Century Association and the
Rembrandt Club. ==Personal life and death==