Dave was born in 1946 in New York and grew up in New York and Washington, DC. His earliest memories of being inspired by plants were on family visits to the New York Botanical Garden. He earned degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado and Stanford University. Moving to the Rocky Mountains opened…
Physicians as botanists were common in the early exploration of the Northwest, including George Engelmann, Archibald Menzies, William Fraser Tolmie, William Tennant Gairdner, and John Strong Newberry. Bend physician Stu Garrett carries on this physician-naturalist tradition, not exploring and reporting new species, but conserving Oregon’s native flora. It is particularly fitting that Garrett worked for…
When Frank Callahan was an impressionable lad of ten his grandfather Walter LaMinter told him: “You are from a long line of pioneers, you need to go out and make discoveries.” Fortunately Frank took his grandfather’s advice and applied it to the plant world with a keen eye for seeing what others have overlooked. He…
This is the story of four Douglas County women, self-proclaimed “Little Old Ladies in Hiking Boots,” whose passion for native plants placed their county at the forefront of the Oregon Flora Project. The four women, Lois Wesley Hopkins, Mildred Thiele, Joan Fosback, and Mary Carlson, founded the herbarium at the Douglas County Museum of History…
When Barbara Robinson first saw the oak/pine area of the Columbia Gorge, she knew she had found home. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Barbara came west to attend Reed College in Portland, finishing a joint major in psychology and philosophy in 1970. In 1972 she completed a MS in psychobiology from the University of California, Irvine….
Russell I. Jolley was born in Texas on December 6, 1922. He obtained a BS in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M. After graduation, he served in the US Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He studied astronomy at the University of Leiden in Holland where he discovered two variable stars, before realizing…
Charlene McMahon Holzwarth was born in Beattie, Kansas, in 1927. After earning a BS degree from Kansas State University, she moved west to Oregon. Here she continued her education, earning an Oregon Teaching Certificate. She began a career of teaching elementary age children in Portland which lasted 34 years, mostly as a full-time substitute teacher….
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…
Long-time plant en-thusiast Veva Stansell knows there is much work to be done when it comes to cataloguing plants in Oregon, but the 73-year-old south-western Oregon resident welcomes the challenge. “There are times I wish I lived closer to a univer-sity, but on the other hand there are advantages to living far away,” said Veva,…
Charlene Simpson wears many hats: mother and grandmother, community committee person, and avid lay botanist. Her botanical interest dates back to childhood Camp Fire Girl projects and a dad whose motto was always “I brake for wildflowers.” Family and career obligations, however, restricted serious pursuit of botany in her early years. Although born in Colorado,…
A.genuine north-westerner, born and educated in Seattle, Rhoda Love claims she discovered her botanical calling in 1951 during a University of Washington botany class with C.L. Hitchcock. “Hitchy was inspiring. I had a superb education at Washington and will always be grateful to the many fine professors who taught me there,” she says. After graduation…
Frank Lang served three terms as president of NPSO (1985-1986, 1979-1981), was a “Founding Father” of the Siskiyou Chapter (1977), co-edited the Bulletin from 1979-1981, and was the first editor of Kalmiopsis (1991- 1994). He has won many awards for his research, publications and volunteer work, including 1990 “Volunteer of the Year” for The Nature…