David P. Barnett, Ph. D.– a Connecticut Yankee in Mount Auburn’ s Court
David P. Barnett, Ph. D.– a Connecticut Yankee in Mount Auburn’ s Court
By Stephen H. Anable, Communications Coordinator & Writer
After a national search that produced dozens of eager and qualified candidates, the Trustees of Mount Auburn selected David( Dave) P. Barnett to be Mount Auburn’ s thirteenth President and CEO on September 10, 2008. In a letter announcing the appointment, Board Chair Jim Storey and Search Committee Chair Ann Roosevelt stated,“ We could not be more proud or confident to have Dave lead this very special place into the future.” Sometimes the best person to fill a position is the one already doing the job and doing it well: Dave had been Acting President since Bill Clendaniel’ s retirement on July 1, 2008. A loyal
identify the plantings, were a vital help in doing this. Now, each year, we can perform a comprehensive analysis of all of our plant collections, making their maintenance that much more timely and thorough.
“ Another cause dear to me is the implementation of more environmentally friendly and sustainable,‘ green’ practices wherever possible, which helps to improve the habitat for wildlife and save us money— while helping the planet as well. Over the years we’ ve added plants that attract and nurture wildlife at Auburn Lake, Halcyon Lake, Consecration Dell, Willow Pond, and, most recently, at our new Wildflower Meadow at Washington Tower.
“ In a broader sense, we do many things quite differently than we did 15 years ago— in practices such as mowing, irrigation, fertilization and leaf cleanup. Instead of vacuuming and removing all of the fallen leaves each autumn, as we did for decades, we now use rotary mowers to mulch the leaves in place, returning organic matter and nutrients and popular Mount Auburn employee, he arrived here 15 years ago as Director of Horticulture and served more recently as Vice President of Operations & Horticulture and then as Executive Vice President.
Looking back, Dave is proud of his strong record of accomplishments thus far, including enhancing Mount Auburn’ s horticultural diversity, improving its value as a wildlife habitat, opening up once-overgrown vistas, and implementing key elements of the Cemetery’ s 1993 Master Plan. He has also carried out the Master Plan’ s directives to delineate and nurture the Cemetery’ s landscape character zones— such as the rural cemetery, Victorian-period, and lawn cemetery zones— while integrating innovative new burial spaces into the whole so that Mount Auburn continues as an active cemetery. Dave“ brought the first computers to the Horticulture department,” guiding the Cemetery through the establishing of a Plant Records department and the computerization of the horticultural databases to better manage the plant collections.“ Computerizing the database was a ten-year effort led by Horticultural Curator Dennis Collins,” Dave says.“ Volunteers, who helped survey and
6 | Sweet Auburn to the soil— and virtually eliminating the use of fertilizer on the grounds. In addition, we have also re-seeded many naturalistic turf areas with dwarf fescue grasses, which require less water and less-frequent mowing. Among cemeteries and botanic gardens, we are a leader in these practices, but there is much more that we can and will do.”
In retrospect, it seems that his whole life prepared Dave to assume Mount Auburn’ s helm. He grew up in the southeastern Connecticut town of Ledyard, in a family abundant with green thumbs. His maternal grandfather owned a garden center, Holdridge Farm Nursery, in Ledyard, and his father, a landscape architect, was responsible