Visionary parks advocate and co-founder of the Olmsted Network (formerly the National Association of Olmsted Parks), Betsy Shure Gross was honored with a prestigious Caroline Loughlin Volunteer Service Award at the organization’s Annual Awards Dinner on October 24th in Washington, DC.
Here is Olmsted Network’s tribute in full:
The Olmsted Network is deeply saddened to share the passing of Betsy Shure Gross, a founding board member and former co-chair of the National Association for Olmsted Parks—now the Olmsted Network. A visionary leader, tireless advocate and beloved colleague, Betsy’s legacy is imprinted on parks, landscapes and communities across the country.
Born on April 2, 1940, in New Haven, CT, Betsy’s love for nature took root early. She grew up playing in Edgewood Park, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. in 1910. It was there that her passion for public landscapes—and her lifelong commitment to their care—began.
Betsy’s love of nature and open spaces led her to restore a local treasure: one of the last surviving linear parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. She began her lifelong conservation work by organizing her neighborhood to restore Olmsted Park in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Although she had not known anything about Frederick Law Olmsted as a child growing up in New Haven, the park near her house where she learned to feed the ducks—Edgewood Park—was one Olmsted’s firm had designed.
When Betsy and her husband relocated to Brookline, she often walked her little boy around the corner from their home to feed the ducks at the banks of the very run-down Muddy River. She was curious why this park reminded her so much of her childhood. After some research, she learned that Olmsted and his firm had designed both parks.
As she organized a neighborhood park clean-up effort, she came to understand that Olmsted had built hundreds of America’s urban parks. She soon turned her energy to leading the restoration of Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace—a chain of parks and waterways stretching from Boston Common to Franklin Park—organizing residents and local governments to take responsibility for maintaining this beautiful public resource.
She helped found both the Massachusetts Association for Olmsted Parks and the National Association for Olmsted Parks. She coordinated a national conference that brought together environmental activists, Olmsted historians, landscape architects, real estate developers, urban planners, and historic preservation professionals. Their joint efforts resulted in a major restoration program across Massachusetts and inspired the creation of many more nonprofit organizations dedicated to urban park restoration and stewardship.
Betsy’s leadership also shaped public policy. She was instrumental in creating the Olmsted Historic Landscape Preservation Program, launched in the late 1980s—the only state-sponsored program of its kind.
In the late 1990s, she helped guide advocacy for the Muddy River Restoration Project following devastating floods, ensuring that the restoration honored Olmsted’s vision while meeting the needs of surrounding communities.
Her influence extended to legislation as well. Betsy was a key advocate for the Community Preservation Act of 2000, which continues to help Massachusetts communities protect open space, historic sites, and affordable housing.
More recently, she was also very proud to have helped establish Mass Parks for All’s Betsy Shure Gross Public Private Partnership Fund, which helps local Massachusetts park and conservation advocates quadruple their fundraising capacity to restore and maintain the Commonwealth’s open spaces.
Throughout her life, Betsy understood the power of parks not just as green spaces but as civic places—where communities connect and democracy is alive and visible. As she once said:
“The most exquisite component of Olmsted’s vision for me is the fact that his parks are places where there really is democracy in dirt, where everyone is welcome.”
We are proud to carry on the work she helped begin and to continue building the network she so lovingly shaped. In honor of Betsy’s legacy, we invite you to make a gift to the Olmsted Network in her memory. Your support helps sustain the vision she championed throughout her life.
To hear Betsy in her own words, watch our full 2023 interview with her or check out these clips from the making of Olmsted & America’s Urban Parks.
