sweet auburn | 2025 volume I
Clockwise, from top left: Patricia Jacoby, James Hunnewell, Bigelow Chapel ribbon-cutting ceremony, 2018, Paul Kuenstner, Sean McDonnell
included accessible public bathrooms and a new Columbarium entrance pathway; and the conceptualization and project team selection for the campuswide Vision Planning project. Jim was also a member of the Education & Programs Committee( and of its predecessor Education & Outreach, which he chaired) and of the Governance & Nominating Committee. Jim served with his colleagues Pat, Sean, and Paul on the Finance Committee— responsible among other things for setting the annual budget— and on the ad-hoc committees overseeing the 2020 – 21 Presidential Search and Cemetery Development and the Council of Chairs.
Sean McDonnell joined the Mount Auburn Board in 2013 after three years as a Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery Trustee and immediately assumed a role in the Cemetery’ s financial oversight as Assistant Treasurer. Sean served as Mount Auburn’ s Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair for nearly ten years. It was a period that witnessed significant capital investment in Cemetery facilities, personnel changes, the Grove Street lot sale, and unforeseen, unprecedented external forces that required nimble fiscal management to ensure Mount Auburn’ s financial stability. Sean brought extensive private and nonprofit-sector business expertise to the role of Treasurer. For over 25 years, he has been President of Architectural Heritage Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit developer located in Brighton that partners with public entities, nonprofit organizations and private developers to demonstrate the effectiveness of adaptive reuse as a tool for economic revitalization.
Paul Kuenstner is a registered architect and former vice president with the Fidelity Foundation who is currently a director for Enso Verde, a Zen-inspired senior-living community in Simi Valley, CA. Paul was elected to the Mount Auburn Board in 2017 and has served as Chair of the Cemetery Services Committee for the past two years— a time of active oversight that has included such diverse agenda items as the rethinking of lot and grave care, digital business transformation, an emerging client-service strategy, and neighborhood-based Cemetery development planning. He has also been engaged through his service on MAC’ s Horticulture & Landscape, PF & I, and Institutional Advancement Committees.
At the June 12th Board Meeting, Trustees and staff gathered to celebrate and thank Pat, Jim, Sean, and Paul. Their leadership, friendship, and integrity have been a source of strength and inspiration to all who have worked alongside them. The Mount Auburn they helped to shape is stronger, more visionary, and better prepared for the future. Their legacy will endure in every quiet path, every preserved landmark, and every life touched by the beauty and care this place offers.
With deepest gratitude: thank you, Pat, Jim, Sean, and Paul. You have made Mount Auburn a better place— for today, and for generations to come.
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