People and Happenings
Patricia Jacoby
People and Happenings
Board of Trustees News
Mount Auburn Cemetery is pleased to announce the appointment of Patricia Jacoby, Deputy Director Emerita of Boston’ s Museum of Fine Arts, as the new Chair of the Board of Trustees. Pat joined Mount Auburn’ s Council of Visitors in 2011 and became a Trustee in 2012. She has been active on numerous committees. A 19-year veteran of the MFA, she was in charge of the Museum’ s external relations including governance and development. During her final decade Pat was responsible for construction oversight of the new Art of the Americas Wing and the concurrent ambitious fundraising effort that raised $ 504 million. Prior to the MFA, Pat held positions at Wheaton College, Harvard School of Public Health, Amherst College and WGBY-TV. An alumna of Connecticut College, she serves on the Board of White Oak Cottages at Fox Hill Village in Westwood and is a member of Cambridge Center for Adult Education’ s Board of Visitors.
Pat took over this leadership position from Thomas C. Cooper at the December 2017 Trustees meeting. Tom had served as Chair for the past four years, and we are grateful for his dedication and commitment to Mount Auburn and glad that he will continue to serve on the Board. We are also pleased to welcome four new members to the Board, as the following individuals were all elected in September 2017:
Robert Airasian is a broker with Coldwell Banker. He is a board member at the Watertown Community Foundation, trustee at the Watertown Savings Bank, and board member and past president( 2011-2013) at the Watertown-Belmont Chamber of Commerce. He received a B. S. in Finance from Boston College’ s Carroll School of Management.
Dean T. Hara’ s background includes human resources management, small business consulting and government relations in Washington, DC. He recently retired as a financial advisor in Boston doing investment planning and advisor oversight. Dean’ s late husband was Congressman Gerry E. Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress. He is a member of the Boston Foundation Equality Fund, the Fenway Health Board of Visitors, and board of the Boston Center for Adult Education( BCAE).
Above: Robert Airasian( left) and Dean Hara( right) Below: Susan E. Mead( left) and Philip L. Laird( right)
Philip L. Laird is the President of ARC / Architectural Resources Cambridge. He was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 2017. Philip is a former trustee and Chair of the Grounds and Building Committee of St. Paul School, which he attended. He is also a member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce and a Corporate Trustee and former Advisory Council Member of the Trustees of Reservations. He is a former member of the Shady Hill School Building and Grounds Committee. He attended the University of Colorado.
Susan Eldredge Mead is a Reference Specialist at Isaacson, Miller Executive Search. She holds an M. A. from Boston University and an M. P. A. from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She has served as Executive Director of World Learning’ s intensive English language program in Boston. She currently serves as the head of the Board of Visitors at Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She is a board member of the Cambridge Club and a trustee of the Elizabeth Taber Library in Marion, MA.
Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Friends of Mount Auburn are grateful to the new and current members of the Trustees who volunteer their time and expertise to further the mission, vision, and values of the institution to the highest standards.
2018 Volume 1 | 25