i *\ ' ?:*• ' t 
or accessible and they were operated asj 
separate units. ' | 
Rehabilitation and development of 
the national parks became a pet project 
of the director. Possessed of a com- 
fortable private fortune and a host of 
friends, this man who had worked his 
way through college and had later gone 
into newspaper work, brought his un- 
flagging interest to the cause of educa- 
tion of the people to the parks and 
their development. 
Criticism Won Position. 
The manner in which he became 
identified with the public parks is an 
interesting story. One Summer he had 
visited several national parks and ex- 
pressed his displeasure at the methods 
I of their exploitation. On his return he 
wrote a letter to the authorities in 
Washington registering his protest ini 
characteristically vigorous terms. A 
short time later he received a letter 
from Secretary Lane, who had been a 
college chum, reading as follows: 
“Dear Steve: If you don’t like the 
way the national parks' are being run, 
why don’t * you come down here to 
Washington and run them yourself? I 
mean this sincerely. Come on.” 
The two met a few days later in 
Chicago. “You’re just the man I’m 
looking for,” Secretary Lane said. "You 
are going to Washington as my as- 
sistant.” 
It was all news to Mr. Mather, but 
when Secretary Lane told him he had 
already announced the appointment to 
the newspapers, Mr. Mather agreed to go. 
He arrived in Washington with the 
rank of an assistant to the Secretary 
and the salary of a stenographer, and 
went to work. His authority was am- 
ple, even though the job itself was lit- 
tle more than a mirage. Prom that 
humble beginning has come the great 
network of national parks, which at- 
tract hundreds of thousands of persons 
annually and today wield vast authority 
along educational lines in the national 
life. Hotels, roadways and other man- 
made comforts make the parks accessi- 
ble and comfortable today, but gener- 
ally their natural condition remains as 
it has been for centuries. They are to- 
day expositions of the wild life of the 
Nation. Mr. Mather took a leading part 
in the steps which led to foundation of 
the Shenandoah National Park and the 
Great Smokies National Park, which ul- 
timately will become the great moun- 
tain national park of the Eastern sea- 
board. 
Worked Way Through School. 
Born in San Francisco July 4, 1867, 
Mr. Mather worked his way through 
the University of California by sell- 
ing books, later taking degrees at his 
alma mater and George Washington 
University in Washington. As a young 
man he went to New York and obtained 
a reportorial job on the old New York 
Sun, where his industry and zeal was 
quickly revealed. This newspaper back- 
ground taught him the value of pub- 
licity, which he later turned to ad- 
vantage in national park development. 
Concluding that newspaper work held 
little for him, he joined' the Pacific 
Coast Borax Co. in New York and later 
in Chicago, where he opened its West- 
ern offices. One of his jobs was mak- 
ing friends for the borax company, 
which then was under fire and needed 
help. Borax in those days was hauled 
across the desert by mule teams. 
In his campaign of publicity he 
showed mule teams in many important 
cities throughout the United States. But, 
witfi the aid of chemists, he. evolved a 
new method of refining raw borax, and 
after an unsuccessful attempt to have 
his company adopt the method, formed 
a partnership with a young engineer 
who knew of other borax deposits. They 
formed a company to challenge the 
borax trust, with Mr. Mather at the 
head, and were successful. That com- 
pany is the Sterling Borax Co., whose 
president Mr. Mather was at the time 
of his death. 
Used Own Money for Parks. 
Shortly after his successful fight 
with the borax trust, when his business 
was on a firm foundation, he came to 
Washington to head the park service. 
Not satisfied with the funds Congress 
granted the park service, Mr. Mather 
dug deeply into his private fortune at 
various times to attain objects he 
deemed desirable in national park de- 
velopment. 
His pleasing personality went a long 
way toward making friends for the 
parks, in and out of Congress. One of 
the projects into which his own money 
went was purchase of the Tioga road, 
across Yosemite National Park, in Cali- 
fornia. Others included purchase of 
groves of sequoia trees and provisions 
for quarters for the park rangers. 
One of his forbears was Cotton Ma- 
,ther, the famous New England minister, 
while another was Elder Brewster. He 
had purchased and restored the old 
Mather homestead at Darien, Conn. 
His home was in Chicago, where he 
maintained a residence at 5638 Dor- 
chester avenue, and had extensive real 
estate interests, although he had lived 
in Washington since 1915. He was 
known in Chicago as the “perfect land- 
lord.” 
Mrs. Mather and a daughter survive 
him. He was a member in Washington 
of the Cosmos Club and the National 
• — j - r - ■ T ; ;7~y— y — anti y . ,, , . . . 
F ess Club, in addition to clubs in oth- 
e: cities, and also was a member of the 
District Society, Sons of the American 
Revolution. 
Mr. Mather had received from the 
King of Sweden a decoration in recog- 
nition of his outstanding work in na- 
tional park development. Gold medals 
from the National Institute of Social 
Science of New York and the Cornelius 
Amory Pugsley Foundation also had 
been presented to him for similar 
achievements. 
