Mount Auburn Cemetery
Matthew Stephens is an accomplished leader in the field of public horticulture, currently serving as the President and CEO of Mount Auburn Cemetery since September 2021. In this role, Matthew sets strategic priorities and collaborates with the Board and senior leadership to achieve ambitious goals aligned with the organization's mission. Previously, as Garden Director for the San Francisco Botanical Garden and Conservatory of Flowers from February 2016 to October 2021, Matthew oversaw daily operations, managed staff, administered budgets, and led fundraising initiatives. Prior to that, as Director of Street Tree Planting for New York City Parks and Recreation from February 2007 to January 2016, Matthew played a key role in the MillionTreesNYC campaign, developing comprehensive plans for urban tree planting with an annual budget of approximately $30 million. Matthew holds a Master of Science in Public Horticulture from the University of Delaware and a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture from Illinois State University.
Mount Auburn Cemetery
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Mount Auburn Cemetery has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior, recognizing it as one of the country's most significant cultural landscapes. Founded in 1831, it was the first large-scale designed landscape open to the public in the United States. Today its beauty, historical associations and horticultural collections are internationally renowned. Our founders believed that burying and commemorating the dead was best done in a tranquil and beautiful natural setting at a short distance from the city center. They also believed that the Cemetery should be a place for the living, "embellishing" the natural landscape with ornamental plantings, monuments, fences, fountains and chapels. This inspired concept was copied widely throughout the United States, giving birth to the rural cemetery movement and the tradition of garden cemeteries. Their popularity led, in turn, to the establishment of America's public parks.