Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-23
MATHER
DIES SUDDENLY.
Had Served as Director of
National Park Service Un-
der Three Presidents.

Stephen Tying Mather, director of the
National Park Service under three Pres
idents, organizer of the service, and the
man credited with forcing public recog-
milton Of the national parks and rails
ing them from the status of orphans
OF the Nation to the stature Of national
Fairgrounds, 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 OF
his friends IN Washington had received
letters from him as late as two days
ago. A second stroke of paralysis,
which came is months after he suf-
Tered 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 ma
tional park development, probably will
be held Saturday afternoon at ST.
Marks Church, New Canaan, Conn.
He will be inferred at Darien, Conn,
where ne maintained a home.
Health Forced Resignation.
Mr.. Mather's death came IS years
ton of the national parks, and only a
little more than a year after his resig-
nation from the post of director of the
National Park Service. After serving
as an assistant to the Secretary of the
Interior in charge of national parks for
more than two years, he was appointed
director of the service in May, 1917.
after having been in charge of the
parks since January 81, 1915. Failing
health forced his resignation as direc-
tor of the service on January 8, 1929
He was succeeded as director by Horace
NJ. 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 ma
ton, were marshaling for permanent
testimonial of his work. This testi-
monial, known as the Stephen T. Ma
Their Appreciation, now will probably
take the form Of memorial, according
to friends here.
Headquarters Of the organization is
in Washington, and meeting will be
held in March to decide on the form
of the testimonial, on the return from
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. Moves, editor of The Star, and
Mrs. Henry A. Strong, chairman of the
board of the Hattie M. Strong Founda-
ton. George w. White, president of
the National Metropolitan Bank of
Washington, Is treasurer of the fund of
$3.50 900, to be raised to create the tes-
timonial. One of the suggestions made
to perpetuate the work of Mr.. Mather
is purchase of 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 lasting imprint on ma
tional life. Unobtrusive, vigorous, q
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 q
vision and few desks in small ONCE
III bA1C 4ACCLAOI 0Cpd1 Ik1lCLi0 ouuQulB W
the vast organization it is today
stretching its network literally from
Maine to Alaska. Always leader in
the cultural life of the community, Mr.
Mather was instrumental in the forma-
ton 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 q
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.
rotary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane
the parks were not in a prosperous
condition. Congress had bought or sci
aside land for them, but their develop.
ment stopped at that point Nothing
had been done to make them popular