Stephen Tyng Mather, a descendant of the famous Mather family of Colonial Massachusetts, was born on July 4, 1867 in San Francisco, California. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1887. He worked as a journalist for The New York Sun for five years before joining his father to promote borax for the Pacific Coast Borax Company. Stephen T. Mather turned this ordinary mineral, used in laundry soap, into a television icon. The product became so popular that former President Ronald Regan appeared in commercials for “20 Mule Team Borax” on his television program Death Valley Days.

Stephen T. Mather became President of The Sterling Borax Company, located on Monroe Street and through his interests in nature and friendships with influential people he became the first director of the National Park Service. In 1988 the United States Congress designated 634,614 acres of Washington State as The Stephen Mather Wilderness.

Stephen T. Mather died in Chicago on January 22, 1930.