“I know that he spent at least $200,000 of his own money for the benefit of the national parks.” Stephen Mather’s generosity remembered by Francis Farquhar

Farquhar spent three years at the Harvard Crimson and twenty years as editor of the Sierra Club Bulletin.  He climbed all the 14,000 foot peaks in the Sierra Nevada and formed his own successful accounting firm.  Beyond that, Francis Farquhar was also a close friend, traveling companion, and staunch ally to Stephen Mather.

Having served as accountant for the National Park Service from 1919

to 1922, Farquhar was intimate with Stephen’s personal financial

contributions to the growth of the national parks.  In an interview at

Berkeley in 1960, Farquhar shared the six-figure size of that largesse.

And as written in the Sierra Club Bulletin in February 1975, Farquhar’s

 “San Francisco apartment was the unofficial western headquarters of the National Park Service.”

In the Homestead archives we have several letters from Farquhar.  A few excerpts…

From a November 22, 1928 letter to Stephen:

“…Wasn’t the election a knockout!...In California, we not only carried the state for Hoover by a big majority, but made the State Park movement an assured success by an emphatic vote in favor of the bonds…”

From a December 11, 1928 letter to Stephen:

“…At the [Sierra Club] Directors meeting there was also a resolution passed that the secretary send you a word of cheer from the members of the Board individually…The Directors [then] devoted their attention to two big projects…While we are not going to burden you with any strenuous activities, we do look to you for the inspiration that you have always given us…”

From a letter that may have been the impetus to having Stephen’s papers at Berkeley, on March 22, 1924, Farquhar wrote to Bertha Mather:

“Dear Betty, I enclose the programs of the Charter Day exercises at the University last Saturday and have a suggestion to make – and that is, that you gather together all material of this sort relating to your father…I believe it would be a source of great interest to you and many others both now and later on…”

Francis and Mary Farquhar on a Sierra Club outing in the 1930s.