Quite a few people have heard of Stephen Mather and most seem to have an acquaintance with the name, but few remember who he was or what he did.
Stephen Mather was the first Director of the National Park Service. Mather, like most people, was quite taken with the national park but felt there wasn’t enough being done to protect them. A successful marketing executive (he created the 20 Mule Team logo still found on boxes of Borax today), Mather employed his skills to lobby for the creation of a governing body that would oversee the national parks and protect them from those who sought to pillage and plunder their riches.
Sierra Club: In 1914, Mather observed the deteriorating conditions in several National Parks, and wrote a letter of protest to Washington. Soon he received a reply from Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, a former classmate of Mather’s from the University of California. Lane responded, “Dear Steve, If you don’t like the way the parks are being run, come on down to Washington and run them yourself.”
Mather was strongly active in the Sierra Club having been influenced by the likes of Muir and LeConte and was appointed as honorary vice president of the Sierra Club in 1916.
For more on Stephen Mather you can check out the Sierra Club, the National Park Service or the National Wildlife Federation.