Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 – January 22, 1930) was an American
industrialist and
conservationist who as president and owner of
Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company became a millionaire. With his friend and 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 as the first director of the
National Park Service, 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.