Stephen Tyng Mather

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Stephen Tyng Mather.

Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 - January 22, 1930) was a pioneering American industrialist and conservationist. He was the president and owner of the Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company, which made him a millionaire. He championed the creation of a federal agency to oversee National Parks, and became the first director of the new agency, the National Park Service under the United States Department of the Interior.

Mather felt that the scenery should be the first criterion in establishing a park. He introduced park concessions to the national parks, allowing vending of basic amenities and necessities to park visitors, including nature study aids. Mather encouraged cooperation with the railroads in order to encourage visitation to normally remote units of the National Park System, and thereby create a base of public support for the fledgling agency and its holdings with those who had seen them and gained a personal appreciation for them.

Various places within today's National Park System are named after Mather, including Mather Point on the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Mather District in Yosemite National Park, the Mather Gorge on the border of Great Falls Park and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, and the Stephen T. Mather Training Center serving the entire National Park System at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. Stephen Tyng Mather High School in Chicago, Illinois is also named after him, as is the Stephen Mather Memorial Parkway (Washington S.R. 410) in the Mount Rainier National Park and the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. His home in Connecticut, the Stephen Tyng Mather Home, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1963.^[1]