BTAK, WASHINGTON, I). C., THU KfsDAY, JANUARY 23, 1930. 
1 
Had Served as Director of 
National Park Service Un- 
der Three Presidents. 
Stephen Tyng Mather, director of the 
National Park Service under three Pres- 
idents, organizer of the service, and the 
man credited with forcing public recog- 
nition of the national parks and rais- 
ing them from the status of orphans 
of the Nation to the stature of national 
playgrounds, is dead at Brookline, 
Mass., where he had gone several weeks 
ago for treatment at the Corey Hill 
Hospital. 
Mr. Mather’s death last night was 
sudden and unexpected, as several cf 
his friends in Washington had received 
letters from him as late as two days 
■ ago. A second stroke of paralysis, 
which came 15 months after . he suf- 
fered a similar stroke in Chicago on 
election day, 1928, caused his death. 
Funeral services for Mr. Mather, 
who had received national and inter- 
national recognition for his outstand- 
ing achievements in the field of na- 
tional park development, probably will 
be . held Saturday afternoon at St. 
Mark’s Church, New Canaan, Conn. 
He will be interred at Darien, Conn., 
where he maintained a home. 
Health Forced Resignation. 
Mr. Mather’s death came- 13 yearj| 
and 1 day after he took over the direc- 
tion of the national parks, and only «( 
little more than a year after his resign 
nation from the post of director of thd 
National Park Service. After serviud 
as an assistant to the Secretary of the 
Interior in charge of national parks for 
more than two years, he was appointee) 
director of the service in May, 1917, 
after having been in charge of the 
parks since January 21, 1915. Failing 
health forced his resignation as direc- 
tor of the service on January 8, 1929. 
He was succeeded as director by Horace 
M. Albright, who had been acting di- 
rector of the park service during Mr. 
Mather’s illness. 
At the time of his death his legion of 
friends throughout the United States, 
numbering many men and women high 
: in the official and social life of the na- 
| tion, were marshaling for a permanent 
l testimonial of his work. This testi- 
monial, known as the Stephen T. Ma- 
• ther Appreciation, now will probably 
■ take the form of a memorial, according 
■ to friends here. 
Park Organizer Dies 
STEPHEN TYNG MATHER 
Headquarters of the organization is 
in Washington, and a meeting will be 
held in March to decide on the form 
of the testimonial, on the return from 
a trip to South America of John Hays 
Hammond, chairman of the national 
committee. Others on the committee 
are: Representative Louis W. Cramton 
of Michigan, Dr. Gilbert H. Grosvenor, 
president of the National Geographic 
Society; Dr. Vernon Kellogg, secretary 
of the National Research Council; The- 
odore W. Noyes, editor of The Star, and 
Mrs. Henry A. Strong, chairman of the 
board of the Hattie M. Strong Founda- 
tion. George W. White, president of 
the National Metropolitan Bank of 
Washington, is treasurer of the fund of 
$150,000, to be raised to create the tes- 
timonial. One of the suggestions made 
to perpetuate the work of Mr. Mather 
is purchase of a grove of sequoia trees 
and their inclusion in a park to be 
named after him. 
Worked for Civic Betterment. 
Possessor of striking personality and 
having the faculty of quickly making 
friends and holding them in bonds of 
mutual work and companionship, Mr. 
Mather leaves a lasting imprint on na- 
tional life. Unobtrusive, vigorous, a 
man of the outdoors, ever pressing for 
expansion of the national parks along 
educational and recreative lines, he had. 
seen the ' development of the National 
Park Service from little, more than a 
vision and a few desks in a small office 
in the Interior Department Building to 
the vast organization it is today, 
stretching its network literally from 
Maine to Alaska. Always a leader in 
the cultural life of the community, Mr. 
Mather was instrumental in the forma- 
tion of the National Capital Park and 
Planning Commission, was one of its 
members for several years and always 
stood for civic betterment along ap- 
proved lines. He always had taken a 
deep interest in the development of the 
National Capital and his advice had 
been sought on many occasions by 
leaders and developers of thought 
along those lines. 
He virtually created the post of di- 
rector of the National Park Service. 
When he took over the task under Sec- 
retary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, 
the parks were not in a prosperous 
condition. Congress had bought or set 
aside land for them, but their develop- 
ment stopped at that point. Nothing ! 
had been done to make them popular 
r. . 
(1 / ' J * 
