NEW YORK—In a way this is a sad column, and yet in another way it should be a song of triumph. To those of us who knew and loved Adele Rosenwald Levy, who died on Saturday night of last week, it will seem for a long time as though something very good had gone out of life. But, on the other hand, how few people leave this world with as triumphant a record!

Adele Levy had great opportunities because she had been well-educated, she was endowed with fine traits of heart and mind and, above everything else, she had a tradition of responsibility for other people in the world.

This made her use her worldly possessions as a trust. She carried on the family feeling in the tradition that her father and mother laid down, but she carried forward for herself a sense of obligation and dedication to the public service which very few men or women living today will surpass. She gave to her family and to her friends a loving loyalty, and to her husband a love and devotion that brought to both of them, I am sure, great happiness.

So, on a personal basis, her loss is sheer tragedy and she will be missed not only as a citizen in her own city and in her own state and country but as a citizen of the world, for she cared about humanity as a whole.

No one can take away the sorrow and the loneliness of those who were nearest and dearest to her. But there must be a great sense of triumph that a life has been so lived that there is so much to be thankful for.

Her life will, I am sure, inspire others to work harder to carry through the things for which she felt it was worthwhile spending her own energy and her great gifts. I hope those of us who worked with her can continue to do something worthy in her memory.

While I speak of those who have left us recently, I would like to say a word as well about Morris Llewellyn Cooke. He had not been active for many years but he was a great engineer and, above all, a very fine man. My husband trusted him and was always happy when he could get him to carry out some piece of work in Washington. The country lost in him another able and good citizen, and one can only hope that his family and friends will find their sorrow lessened by the knowledge that his was a full and useful life.

Last Saturday night at the Hotel Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, I attended the first large fund-raising party given for Girls Town, which Mrs. Horace Dodge II has initiated. She has now acquired the land near Orlando and is getting expert advice, which I hope will help her carry her plans through successfully. It would be wonderful if every state could have a Girls Town as well as a Boys Town -- if they are well run.

Mrs. Dodge has plenty of goodwill and courage and energy but not a great deal of experience. Therefore, she must provide herself with this vital necessity in the people she attracts to help her. Unfortunately, I have so much to do and can go so seldom to Florida that I will not be able to serve on her advisory committee. But I have told her I shall be glad to see her anytime she comes to New York and to talk with anyone she wishes to send up for conferences. I certainly wish her great success in her undertaking.