According to Robert Shankland in his biography of Stephen Mather, Mather had to overcome bureaucracy and vested interests to establish his vision for NPS concessions. Whereas some lobbied for a host of competing concessionaires in a park, Stephen favored a monopolistic approach, giving one company full responsibility.
In Yosemite, the one company was the Yosemite Park and Curry Company. Its president was Donald B. Tresidder, who quite literally married into the business when he wed Mary Curry, the daughter of David and Jenny Curry in 1920.
Leading the company, Tresidder oversaw the construction of new roads, the establishment of the Badger Pass Ski Area, and the Ahwahnee Hotel, which was built in 1927 and is now recognized as a National Historic Landmark. For many years, Tresidder assumed the role of the Squire at the Bracebridge Dinner, a grand Christmas feast held annually on Christmas Day at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite.
Forming a close bond with Stephen Mather, Tresidder hosted Stephen’s 61st birthday party luncheon on the sixth floor “roof garden” of the Ahwahnee in July 1928. In the Bancroft Library archives we have a 1929 letter from Tresidder to Mather expressing his sorrow at Stephen’s resignation from the NPS and encouraging him to make the move to California.
In 1943, Tresidder became the fourth president of Stanford University, serving until 1948, when on university business in New York, he died of a heart attack at the age of 53.
Stephen Mather and Don Tresidder on the site for the Ahwahanee Hotel.
Stephen Mather’s 61st Birthday Luncheon (STM at the head and Don Tresidder at the foot.)
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