Jerry Igo

Rex Jerrold Igo was born April 25, 1929 in Weleetka, Okla-homa, the youngest of ten children of William Everett Igo and Mary E. Igo. They moved west in the early years of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, arriving in Medford, Oregon, in 1933 where the family farmed and grew peaches. Jerry graduated from Medford High School in 1947. During the war years he worked the family farm going while his older brothers were away in military service. At age 16 he started his first job away from the farm, doing snow surveys for the Soil Conservation Service. He traveled throughout Oregon, visiting the heads of 120 watersheds to inspect snow courses in summer, and to ski in to measure them in winter.

He attended Willamette University with such notables as Mark Hatfield, Tom Bartlett, and Bob Sayre, and was introduced to botany by Dr. Morton Peck. His money ran out before gradua-tion so he took time off to return to Medford, married the “girl next door” who was Ellen Howard, and then began a 27 year career with United Air Lines. After transferring to Portland, he attended Lewis and Clark College. United generously encour-aged college attendance when it fit into work schedules. He took botany classes from Dr. Leonid Enari, and worked on an OSU project with Dr. Helen Gilkey. Later, the family returned to Med-ford, where he attended Southern Oregon College and worked with Dr. Irene Hollenbeck. By now the family included Michael, Stephen, Lawrence, Paula, and Karen. Various mergers brought expansion to United Air Lines, and to avoid a transfer to distant cities such as Cleveland, Detroit, or Omaha, the family returned to Portland. While there Jerry taught at Portland Community College. His favorite class was Wilderness Skills, which combined all the natural sciences, routefinding, mountain climbing, and ski mountaineering. His heavy schedule culminated in a divorce;

Ellen and the girls moved back to Medford. In 1975 Jerry, son Stephen, and two women students skied from Mt. Hood to the California border… 42 days living in deep snow, resupplied at inter-vals by son Michael, and members of the Oregon Nordic Club. After the successful completion of this trip, life for Jerry was sim-ply not the same. As soon as possible he wanted to get away from the scream of jet engines and the rumble of heavy traffic.

He bought land near Mosier, Oregon in 1976. He retired early from United in 1978 and has lived in a log cabin in a quiet canyon ever since. At Mosier he met Keith Chamberlain, founder of the Mid-Columbia Chapter of Native Plant Society. He helped Keith and others set up an annual wildflower show at the Mosier School. He taught plant identification classes at Treaty Oak, pre-decessor to Columbia Gorge Community College, as well as Wilderness Skills classes both there and in his own school. He climbed Mt. Hood 42 times and Mt. Adams 15 times.

Feeling a need to use his Master’s degree in social work, he became Treatment Director in a residential treatment center for teenaged boys who were wards of the court. At the end of this two-year commitment, he needed a change. So he bicycled from Vancouver, British Columbia to Key West, Florida, a 5600-mile, 79-day trip.

Near his home is the Nature Conservancy Tom McCall Pre-serve. The Mid-Columbia Chapter has volunteered for interpre-tive projects, as well as weed and trash control, and Jerry has compiled a complete plant list for the preserve.

Between 1985 and 1990 he was Noxious Weed Supervisor for Hood River County, working from Hood River to Mt. Hood Meadows and the Columbia River gorge from Bonneville Dam to Mosier. This was a great opportunity to see the interaction between exotic and native plants. He worked with Oregon Depart-ment of Agriculture, Weed Division from 1990-1993 and with Oregon Dept of Transportation 1994-1995, surveying rare plants on roadsides.

He taught botany, wetland ecology, and northwest history at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington for five years. He has been a speaker and quizmaster for Oregon Vegetation Management Association for the last 13 years. He has made many wildflower videotapes, including the NPSO education and promotion video. He is a regional coordinator for the Oregon Plant Atlas Project, working with Wilbur Bluhm and Scott Sundberg.

He has been involved with the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, helping Michael Igo and Barbara Robinson with revege-tation and weed control. The Mid-Columbia chapter of NPSO, of which he is president, holds meetings at the Discovery Center. He was Director-at-large for NPSO for two terms (1988-90 and 1994-96). He currently serves as Education Chair for NPSO. He leads numerous wildflower walks, and can be seen in early spring sharing his knowledge of flowers with groups.

As Jerry winds through his seventh decade he has yet to slow down. At present he is historian/naturalist on Lindblad Expeditions’ Cruise Ships on the Columbia and Snake Rivers…. “In the Wake of Lewis & Clark” He tells guests from all over the world about his two favorite subjects: Pacific Northwest history and native plants. He has interacted with people from native plant societies from many other states, and makes sure that everyone knows what is going on with the Native Plant Society of Oregon.

– Michael Igo, Mid-Columbia Chapter