Stephen Mather

Stephen Mather
1st Director of the National Park Service
In office May 16, 1917 – January 8, 1929
President	Woodrow Wilson Warren Harding Calvin Coolidge
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Horace M. Albright
Personal details
Born	(1867-07-04)July 4, 1867 San Francisco, California, U.S.[1]
Died	January 22, 1930(1930-01-22) (aged 62) Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.[2]
Resting place	Mather Cemetery, Darien, Connecticut
Spouse	Jane T. Floy (1893)
Children	Bertha Floy Mather
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley
Occupation	Businessman Naturalist
Awards	Public Welfare Medal (1930)

Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 – January 22, 1930)^[3] was an American industrialist and conservationist who was the first director of the National Park Service. As president and owner of Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company he became a millionaire. With his friend the journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather led a publicity campaign to promote the creation of a unified federal agency to oversee National Parks administration, which was established in 1916. In 1917, Mather was appointed to lead the NPS, the new agency created within the Department of the Interior. He served until 1929, during which time Mather created a professional civil service organization, increased the numbers of parks and national monuments, and established systematic criteria for adding new properties to the federal system.