The Last Ceremony

Ann’s Ceremony at Colorado National Monument
We gathered at Colorado National Monument today, on what would have been Ann Schaffer Elder’s 52nd birthday. I arrived about 10:15, and parked at the visitor center, where the general public comes to learn about Colorado N. M., and where Joan Anzelmo’s office is. Next door, in a beautiful stone building built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, is where Karla Tanner now works. In front of the visitor center, is a plaque honoring Stephen T. Mather, first director of the National Park Service. I doubt that many visitors read it, or understand it, but I remembered a copy of that very plaque at the visitor center in Death Valley.

The first national park was created in 1872, with the creation of Yellowstone, but there was no National Park Service created to care for it. It wasn’t until 1916, when Congress created the park service in an apparent afterthought, 44 years later. Up until that point, for instance, Yellowstone was being “managed” by the U.S. Cavalry (not to take anything away from their abilities, but this wasn’t really in their job description). Mather was the first director of an agency which had few established guiding principles. The NPS ideals were pretty much a blank page that he could fill as he saw fit. Mather created an agency worthy of the national park idea, sometimes called America’s best idea (most recently by Ken Burns on that great PBS series). Stephen T. Mather was a hero to Ann. When I first met her, she had a black cat named Mather in his honor (and a very good cat he was!)

The plaque reads,

“There will never come an end to the good that he has done.”

Annie was soaked through with the NPS ideals of conserving the best of America’s countryside “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” (as it says at an historic entrance to Yellowstone). She tirelessly worked to benefit the resources of Fossil Butte National Monument, Dinosaur National Monument, and Colorado National Monument. With Lynn Mitchell and other NPS folk, she had traveled to many other park units to advance their agendas. And of course she gave terrific interpretive tours to many visitors, both in structured events and just in ad-hoc, spur of the moment encounters.

Mather was succeeded by Horace Albright, who is remembered at a training center on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. At one of Ann’s training events, she took notes on what struck her as most important. I found her notebook after her death, in one of those moving episodes that we experience when we sift through our loved one’s personal possessions. Some of it was dry and technical, but she ended with two questions,

“27 Aug 2006
Every night ask who did I serve today?
Every morning, ask who can I serve?”

And those two thoughts about service are the final entries. Ann was all about service to others, to her friends, to strangers, to animals, to the landscapes she was a steward of. She served the National Park Service well, and I am grateful to Joan Anzelmo for all she has done to insure that Ann’s service will be remembered and honored. We can well say of her, “There will never come an end to the good that she has done.” It’s true, not hyperbole, as long as we remember her life, and as long as she inspires us to do better ourselves.

This is, I believe, the last official ceremony that will be conducted in remembrance of her. But I have already arranged to maintain Ann’s website on sympathytree.org until 2025. I know I will re-read what Ann’s friends and loved ones have said here, and I may be moved to add to it from time to time. I wish you all well with your separate lives, and look forward to the times when we may meet face-to-face.

Tom