Bolinger Steps in as Interim President of the Friends

By Dan Murphy

As Interim President of the Friends of the Public Garden, Gene Bolinger views his tenure as a brief, transitional period ahead of the organization’s next chapter under new leadership.

​“As we await the arrival of a new president, I am working to guide the staff on the essential day-to-day activities, positioning the organization to be productive and effective as it continues a successful transition to a new president,” he said. “And during this transition period, we will work to refine and reinvigorate our individual roles and goals in advance of welcoming a new president later this spring.”

Bolinger was appointed to the Boston Parks Commission in 2023. He has also volunteered on the Friends Common Committee and Council, being named its co-chair last year.

It was during his 38-year career as a landscape architect that he was first immersed in the three parks, led by the Friends of the Public Garden, a nonprofit group working in partnership with the Boston Parks Department to maintain, enhance, and preserve – the Boston Common, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, and the Public Garden.

Bolinger served as a former Vice President and head of the landscape architecture practice at the Boston firm Weston & Sampson for decades. Prior to his retirement in July of 2022, he participated in completing the Master Plan for Boston Common.

In all, Bolinger estimates he worked on 150 projects with the Boston Parks Department, around of 30 of which he said involved improvements to the Common, Garden and Mall.” Some of the more significant projects included the restoration of several areas of the Boston Common, including the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Park Street Mall, the Brimmer Path, Oliver Wendell Holmes and MacArthur Malls.

Other projects included the irrigation and lighting systems on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and a myriad of improvements to the Public Garden, including resetting the granite block edges around the Lagoon.

“There’s hardly any area of the three parks that I didn’t have the great pleasure touching and improving,” said Bolinger.

According to Bolinger, after retiring, he enjoyed his leisure time and did not seek to take on any new obligations. But when the Friends approached him and asked him if he would be willing to fill in as the organization’s Interim President while an executive search was underway for a new leader, it was an opportunity he felt he couldn’t pass up.

“There are not a lot of things I would have considered, but I agreed to do it,” said Bolinger. “The Friends is an organization that I have great admiration and respect for, who makes a difference.”

Since Bolinger stepped into the role on Dec. 3, he said his deep affection and respect for the Friends has only continued to grow.

“Now, I’m completely immersed, and I think it’s amazing what this organization accomplishes, year in and year out for the parks and all that enjoy them,” he said.  “We have a terrific staff who’ve embraced me being on board during this interim period. We’re all just catching our breaths and so excited for what is yet to come.”

As Bolinger sees it, the Friends has had three chapters – the first spanning its first 41 years with Henry Lee at the helm. Lee helped establish the Friends in 1970 and would serve as its leader until 2011. He was subsequently named president emeritus of the organization upon his retirement.

The second chapter in the Friends’ history coincided with Liz Vizza’s 15-year tenure with the organization. Vizza came on board as Executive Director of the Friends group in April 2009. As a testament to just how much Vizza achieved with the group, the Friends board voted in August 2020 to officially change Vizza’s title to President. She served in that capacity until her retirement at the end of ’24.

Meanwhile, according to Bolinger, the Friends’ ongoing relationship with the Boston Parks Department, codified when the two groups signed a  Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in 2020 and subsequently renewed for another term, remains as strong as ever.

“We are committed to working together at the highest level,” he said. “We have such great regard for our partners at Boston Parks. We find them highly responsive and in complete synch with our desire, everyone’s desire frankly, to protect and enhance the three parks. So, we remain 100 percent committed to maintaining this relationship in a constructive and effective manner by displaying good faith, honesty, candor, and respect during every interaction.”

The ongoing upkeep of the parks requires diligent attention and ample financial resources, said Bolinger, with the constant concern being that without the proper care, these spaces could literally be “loved to death.”

Bolinger added: “The greatness of these three parks depends on continued investment by the City of Boston’s Parks and Recreation Department and the Friends through their legions of incredibly generous supporters. There is an ebb and flow to the City’s ability to get us all the way there, and that is why the Friends exist. In this new chapter, our city faces many challenges and has many opportunities, and it may be that funds for operational and capital endeavors, which are essential, dwindle. If that is the case, the gap will need to be closed, or we will notice a diminishing quality of these greenspaces. So we may need to prepare to do even more. And that means we may have to ask more of our amazing and wonderful supporters and reach out to find additional new supporters, particularly from the corporate realm. Financial status is not cast in stone, and the need changes from year to year, but we must remain vigilant and agile if more is needed from us at some point.”

While the organization’s “overarching mission remains the same, renew, care, advocate, and continue to love these three nationally and locally adored recognized public open space properties,” Bolinger said the Friends is now focusing its work, including special programming, “in a way that celebrates the diversity of our city and others who visit from places near and far.”

Bolinger added: “The three parks must be welcoming and supportive by recognizing the needs of a diverse range of visitors. We must also be vigilant in reaching out to communities throughout our city to increase awareness and to reinforce the fact that the three parks are intended for the use and enjoyment of everyone.”