Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn A Healing and Meditative Landscape | Page 3

President’s Corner
In 1831, Mount Auburn’s founders set out to design a place of beauty and tranquility to accommodate the burial and com-
memoration of the deceased while also providing comfort and inspiration to the living. At the consecration ceremony on September
24 of that year, Associate Supreme Court Justice (and Mount Auburn’s first president) Joseph Story stood in the woodland area
we now call Consecration Dell and eloquently described the surroundings and the vision for Mount Auburn:
A rural Cemetery seems to gratify human feelings, or tranquilize human fears;… and to cherish all those associations which
cast a cheerful light over the darkness of the grave. And what spot can be more appropriate than this, for such a purpose?
Nature seems to point it out with significant energy, as the favorite retirement for the dead. There are around us all the varied
features of her beauty and grandeur—the forest-crowned height, the sheltered valley… the lofty oak, the beech, the rustling
pine…. All around us there breathes a solemn calm…
It is exciting for me to think that 187 years later, the woodland described by Joseph Story—and the rural cemetery envisioned
by Mount Auburn’s founders—still exists and is in fact going strong with a very bright future. Thanks to our efforts over the past
twenty years to restore the woodland in the Dell, one can stand in the same spot where Justice Story delivered his address and see
the view shown on the cover of this issue of Sweet Auburn.
The theme of this issue, “A Healing and Meditative Landscape,” highlights the important role that Mount Auburn continues
to play for so many visitors who have lost loved ones or are in need of comfort and inspiration for whatever reason. The articles on
pages 16, 18, and 20 offer compelling examples of how the Cemetery provides solace, creativity, renewal, and comfort. They serve
as powerful reminders to the staff of the importance of what we do every day to carry out our mission of “inspiring all who visit,
comforting the bereaved, and commemorating the dead in a landscape of exceptional beauty.”
The lead article (pp. 2–7) about “Revitalizing Bigelow Chapel and Asa Gray Garden” describes two exciting projects under-
way that will enable us to offer a wide range of end-of-life services into the next century and beyond, while continuing to provide
a landscape with healing, meditative, and inspirational qualities.
We also continue striving to be a model of environmental stewardship. We look forward to working with our second Educator-
in-Residence David Morimoto as part of our exciting collaboration with Lesley University (pp. 10–11) to conduct biodiversity
research and ecological assessments of Mount Auburn as an oasis of nature in an urban environment. And our continued efforts
to introduce meadows and other turf alternatives are described on page 12.
I think that Mount Auburn’s founders would be pleased to read about the various activities described under People and
Happenings (pp. 25–27), which provide just a few examples of h ow vibrant Mount Auburn is as a cultural organization and as
a place of learning even as it continues to be an active cemetery.
None of this could happen without our fabulous staff. On pages 22–24, we bid farewell to six long-time and dedicated
employees who all retired in 2017. I am grateful for their substantial contributions to making Mount Auburn a better place.
Fortunately, they were great mentors and made sure that other employees were ready to fill their shoes. We also have an active
and supportive Board of Trustees. In September we welcomed four new Trustees (p. 25), and in December, after serving four years
as Board Chair, Tom Cooper passed the baton to Pat Jacoby. I am thankful for the great partnership I had with Tom, and look
forward to his continued involvement as Chair of the Horticulture & Landscape Committee. I look forward to working closely
with Pat, as well as with our new Trustees and the entire Board and staff, to achieve our many ambitious goals and to continue
carrying out our important mission.
I hope to see you out in Mount Auburn’s beautiful and healing landscape.
Cheers,
David P. Barnett
President & CEO
Dave Barnett with Patricia Jacoby, the newly appointed Chair of the Board of
Trustees (left), and Tom Cooper, the former Chair (right).
2018 Volume 1 | 1