sweet auburn | 2021 volume ii
Francis Boott Richardson
( 1911 – 1970 ) President 1963 – 1967 / Trustee 1963 – 1967
Prentiss Cummings
Oakes Ingalls Ames
( 1893 – 1970 ) President 1934 – 1963 , 1967 – 1968 Trustee 1934 – 1963 , 1967 – 1968 Lot 2910 Begonia Path
Oakes Ingalls Ames was the son of the noted botanist Oakes Ames . Ames graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics in 1915 . He served in the U . S . Army National Guard during World War I . After the war , he worked as an investment counselor with Loomis , Sayles & Company . He was also president of the Boston Children ’ s Museum and director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society .
As president of Mount Auburn , Ames devoted himself to the enhancement of a naturalistic landscape and to horticultural diversity , planting hundreds of varieties of trees and shrubs . These principles , which influence Mount Auburn ’ s horticultural practices to this day , contributed to the development of the site as a renowned arboretum . Under Ames ’ watch , the Cemetery built six new greenhouses during the 1930s and , in response to the devastation caused by the hurricane of 1938 , carried out a major replanting of more than 340 varieties of trees .
“ At ‘ Sweet Auburn ’ I expect to finish my humble life ’ s work .”
— Oakes Ingalls Ames , 1935
Alan Dukehart Chesney
Francis Boott Richardson , a grandson of renowned architect Henry Hobson Richardson , attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Harvard in 1934 . During World War II , he worked as a special agent for the FBI . After the war , Richardson did extensive archaeological work in Central and South America with the Carnegie Institute of Washington .
During Richardson ’ s four-year tenure as president and trustee , Mount Auburn developed remaining acres in the meadow area and hired the landscape architecture firm of Innocenti & Webel to redesign Asa Gray Garden . In 1964 , Dr . Donald Wyman of the Arnold Arboretum completed a detailed inventory of trees at Mount Auburn in which he identified more than 2,000 trees representing more than 300 species . Under Richardson ’ s watch the following year , approximately 1,500 trees were labeled as part of a horticultural education program .
Alan Dukehart Chesney
( 1923 – 1997 ) President 1968 – 1988 / Trustee 1968 – 1988 Honorary Trustee 1988 – 1997
Alan Chesney was raised in Baltimore , Maryland . After graduating from high school , Chesney served in World War II in an Air Force Army bomber group . He completed thirty-five missions working as the operator of a ball turret underneath a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress . Chesney graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1950 and worked as a sales manager at Head Ski Company .
During his twenty years of service at Mount Auburn , fifteen acres of land for family lots and single graves were sold and 4,000 new grave spaces were added . Chesney oversaw the development of two garden crypts , Willow Court and Auburn Court , which provided an option for above ground interment . A new crematory and greenhouse were also built . Chesney established the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery ( FOMAC ), which promotes the appreciation of Mount Auburn through its preservation , horticulture , and educational programs . A skilled photographer , Chesney left behind an extensive midtwentieth-century record of Mount Auburn ’ s landscape .
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