People and Happenings
People and Happenings
Volunteer Profile : Bill McEvoy : A Man for All Seasons and Cemeteries
There are two things that can be said about Bill McEvoy : he ’ s always on the go , and he gives of himself , whether it ’ s his company , time , or bottomless supply of humorous stories . A volunteer with the Preservation Department since 2009 , Bill has taken on a variety of monument inscription projects , most notably finding and documenting the more than 900 Civil War combatants and non-combatants memorialized at Mount Auburn .
A veteran himself , the Civil War project had special meaning for Bill , who completed it just in time for the Civil War Sesquicentennial . In addition , he has been recording the inscriptions of , and researching the individuals buried in , Mount Auburn ’ s “ Public Lots .” Bill has generously shared his research in lectures and walking tours at Mount Auburn and the other volunteer docent guides frequently use his work while planning their tours .
Mount Auburn isn ’ t the only place to benefit from Bill ’ s charitable gift of time and talent . Although he retired as a
magistrate with the Newton District Court , he continues to hear small court cases as a volunteer in the District Court of Dedham . This past year he received the Bill leads a tour for Mount Auburn volunteers through Justice Maurice the Sand Banks Cemetery , Catholic Archdiocese . Richardson Award for his extraordinary volunteer service in Dedham . Furthermore , he gives his time at the VA Hospital in Bedford as a hospice volunteer . Never idle , he also collaborated with the Historical Society of Watertown to document the 22,000 graves of Sand Banks Cemetery ( Catholic Archdiocese ) next door to Mount Auburn . In recognition of that project he was awarded the 2013 Historical Resources Preservation Award by the Watertown Historical Commission .
With the love of his supportive wife , Lucille , and his sidekick cat , Buddy , Bill brings enthusiasm , generosity , and friendliness to every task .
Trustee News
In December , Tom Cooper became Chair of Mount Auburn ’ s Board of Trustees , after serving as Vice Chair for the past three years . Mr . Cooper ( pictured , left ) has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1994 and has also served as a member of the Friends of Mount Auburn Board of Trustees . He replaced Ann Roosevelt , who had served a three-year term as Board Chair and now remains as a member of the Board of Trustees .
Mount Auburn ’ s Newest Staff Member
Mount Auburn welcomed Steve Jackson last fall as plant records manager / plant propagator in the Horticulture Department . Steve ’ s responsibilities include providing leadership in the ongoing effort to fully document the plant collections in the Cemetery ’ s historic landscape ; using BG-Base / BG-Map software ; producing and installing plant display labels and accession tags , plant field-mappings , and taxonomic verifications in the collection . Steve will also play a leading role in the planning and in-house production of woody and herbaceous plants in the Greenhouse , Experimental Garden , and Nursery .
Trained at the New York Botanical Garden ’ s School of Professional Horticulture , Steve ( pictured , right ) has worked at Wave Hill in the Bronx and the Highline in lower
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Manhattan . More recently , he has worked in estate gardening in Newport , Rhode Island , and at the Opus Nursery in Little Compton , which specializes in rare and unusual plants .
Now that Steve is on board , we invite volunteers to help with a variety of projects in plant records , labeling , and inventorying .