Wilbur Bluhm

The NPSO Fellows Committee and the Board of Directors have chosen Wilbur Bluhm and Kenton L. Chambers to become Fellows of the Native Plant Society of Oregon, our organization’s highest honor. The awards will be presented at this summer’s Annual Meeting.

Wilbur Bluhm was born in Seward, Nebraska and took his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Nebraska and his Master’s at Purdue. He completed further graduate work at the University of Illinois and Oregon State

University. In 1957 Wilbur joined the staff of OSU’s Extension Service where he provided information for landscape architects, nursery persons, plant growers and the public. He retired in 1984 as Chairman of the Salem

staff. Wilbur was instrumental in organizing the Willamette Valley Chapter of NPSO in 1977. This was one of the earliest chapters to form outside Portland.

Wilbur has long championed the use of native species for landscaping and restoration. He has made numerous presentations on this subject to such groups as the International Plant Propagators’ Society and the Perennial Plant Association. He has also worked with the Nature Conservancy, the Oregon Garden Project and the Berry Botanic Garden. Recently he has taught taxonomy classes at Chemeketa Community College. Wilbur was

nominated for the NPSO Fellows award by Walt Yungen on behalf of the Willamette Valley Chapter of NPSO.

Kenton L. Chambers’ contribution to botany, within and outside Oregon is well known. A few of his accomplishments are: Professor of botany, Herbarium Curator, taxonomic researcher, major professor for an important cadre of graduate students, earliest compiler of Oregon’s rare plant list, senior member of the Oregon Flora Project, and preparer of treatments of a good percentage of the Asteraceae, Liliaceae and other families for the Vascular Plant Checklist.

Ken was born in Los Angeles and attended Whittier College and Stanford University. His first teaching post was at Yale. Ken came to Oregon State University in 1960 where he became professor of botany and Herbarium Curator. Agrostology, one of the new courses Ken developed at OSU became one of his most popular. Ken served as major professor for 16

Ph.D. and 14 Masters students. Some of the genera worked on by his students were Claytonia, Aster, and Artemisia. He contributed to many manuals and floras such as the Jepson Manual and Flora of North America. Ken retired from OSU in 1990 with Emeritus status but can still be found in the Herbarium most days, working on the new Flora of Oregon. Ken was nominated by Rhoda Love of Emerald Chapter.

We hope you will attend the Annual Meeting, July 30 to August 1, and be present when these two very important Society members receive their awards.

NPSO Fellows Committee: Veva Stansell, Shane Latimer, Rhoda Love