Bill McBride AB ’70, MArch ’75

Co-Founder, Pioneer Bluffs Foundation

Co-Founder, Matfield Station

Matfield Green, Kansas

1. How do you contribute to public service in your community? 

Nearly 20 years ago, I moved with my wife, Julia Fabris McBride, to Matfield Green, Kansas, a town of 50 people in the heart of the tallgrass prairie. We did not anticipate the abundant opportunities for community service. Since then... 

• We co-founded Pioneer Bluffs Foundation to preserve a landmark ranch headquarters and to create a place for programs, a vegetable garden, nature walks, weddings, and community celebrations.

• We established Matfield Station on our 40 acres along the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway. The property includes our house and my studio—frequently used for community activities—and a historic railroad bunkhouse repurposed as three studio apartments we often rent through Airbnb. 

• Matfield Station also provides lodging for the Tallgrass Artist Residency, now in its 10th year, hosting ten visiting artists each summer. 

• On the surrounding land we have established Matfield Station PrairyArt Path, a sculpture park with four miles of trail though untilled prairie. It is open to the public and has become a major attraction on the scenic byway.

I am also a board member of our small, local nonprofit, Matfield Green Works. Our mission is to connect people to the earth and each other. Matfield Green Works welcomes visitors, presents programs focused on the prairie, and recently built a small public park called the Green, with a much-needed toilet, picnic shelter, drinking fountain, and bike repair stand. 

2. How has your Harvard alumni network supported your efforts in community impact and public service? 

Matfield Green (population 52) is not a Harvard Alumni intensive place. However, we have enjoyed wonderful financial and moral support from my brothers John AB ’67 and Mike AB ’62, PhD ’67, as well as my Harvard roommates Karl Rohlich AB ’70, Neil Martin AB ’70, and De Kirkpatrick AB ’70. Karl was a founding partner at Matfield Station, a Matfield resident for two years, and now serves as the treasurer of Matfield Green Works overseeing budgets from his home in Madison, Wisconsin.

In the summer of 2021, I was delighted to discover that Tallgrass Artist Resident Ben Cosgrove AB ’10, composer and multi-instrumentalist, lived in Mass Hall just as Karl, Neil, De, and I did decades before. 

3. What does public service mean to you? 

Public service was not on my mind when we decided to move to Kansas. The move was about becoming a full-time sculptor surrounded by prairie. So what a sweet realization to learn that my sculpture, prairie stewardship, and community life are now all about public service—connecting people to the earth and each other.