by David E. Carr, Director
This summer marked my 25th anniversary at Blandy, and I felt that gave me license to reminisce a bit. In the fall of 1996, I was a visiting Assistant Professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA when I got a call from a UVA colleague telling me about a job opening at Blandy. She knew I was on the job market, and she wanted to be sure that I did not overlook the advertisement. “It’s a little different,” she told me, “but the position really has a lot of potential.” When I got the job offer as Research Assistant Professor and Curator, I debated taking such a non-traditional faculty position. Looking back, accepting the offer was one of the best decisions I ever made.
I arrived on the 1st of July 1997, midway through the summer research program. Blandy was hosting four undergraduate and four graduate student researchers. Michael Bowers, his post-doc Jim Dooley, and I were the only full-time researchers at Blandy (Ed Connor, Blandy’s Director, departed for San Francisco State University a month after I arrived, and Jim would accept a job offer at Muskingum College in Ohio within a year). The Arboretum staff included only Bob Arnold and Susan Holsinger (part-time), and the buildings staff included only Dennis Heflin and two part-time assistants. The administrative staff included only Judy Masi, Tim Farmer (also hired that summer), and a part-time admin assistant. Mary Olien (also hired that summer) ran the K12 and all public programs.
As small as Blandy seemed relative to today, I must say that FOSA (now called the Foundation of the State Arboretum) was comparatively robust. Joslin Gallatin was FOSA President at the time, and she had her own office in the Quarters. Volunteers and board members were so involved that they seemed like Blandy employees. These included Charlotte Miller and Jim Wyatt, each of whom eventually took a turn as President, Jim’s wife Kathy Clark, Blandy alumnus Mac Stiff, FOSA founding member Bob Lee, and many more. The Grounds and Garden Committee oversaw the herb garden and all the perennial gardens, and the Native Plant Trail Committee developed the planting scheme for the Trail’s woodland section.
“Student 2000”: The Blandy class of 2000. Blandy got its first digital camera that summer, and this is the oldest group photo I have of Blandy students. Pictured are six undergrads and four graduate students, including: (standing) Jo Anna Leachman, Evan Braswell, Alexandra Thorn, David Bowne, (sitting on the couch) Heather White, Lydia Ries, Michael Loeb, Erin McMahon, Michael Wise, and (on the floor) Jeremiah McGuire.
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, with Michael Bowers as Director, Blandy developed programmatic and landscape master plans that guided growth for years to come. T’ai Roulston arrived as Associate Director, and our summer undergraduate program increased to 10 students. We built the first two cottages in the “Research Village,” and Patrick Crumrine and Mary McKenna moved in and became fixtures from 2004 onward. FOSA hired Jennifer Peachey (now Schaefer) as its first Director. With the help of UVA President Casteen in the early 2000’s, FOSA successfully convinced the Virginia General Assembly to provide some financial support for the Arboretum, beginning a transformational expansion of the Arboretum (think Kim Strader, Carrie Whitacre, Jack Monsted, Chris Schmidt, Jared Manzo, Luciana Codella, and Orphee Ross) and Education staff (think Emily Ford, Lil Ledford, and Stephanie Feldbush).
Later that decade, Michael Bowers departed for the USDA, and Candace Lutzow-Felling replaced Mary Olien, who departed for Green Spring Gardens. With the arrival of Steve Carroll as Director of Public Programs, the leadership of present-day Blandy took shape. I eventually assumed the role of Director, and T’ai moved into the Curator position, making room for the arrival of Kyle Haynes as Associate Director.
Our graduate program grew, supporting a steady 8-12 students each summer, and more space was needed. In 2012 we opened our new laboratory, and in 2017 we built a new research greenhouse and two more cottages for the Research Village. In the late 1990’s, Blandy was “Virginia’s best kept secret,” but twenty years later 200,000 people a year were visiting.
The Blandy faculty and staff has mostly turned over since 1997, as has the corps of FOSA volunteers. By my count, 217 students have completed our undergraduate research program, and Blandy has supported about 65 graduate students toward the completion of their degrees. The contributions of these and others too numerous to mention have worked to further our mission and make Blandy a better place and a better resource to an increasingly diverse audience. There is still more to do here, but new employees and volunteers who have arrived in recent years continue to bring fresh energy and ideas to keep us moving forward.
“Forum 2022” The Blandy class of 2022. The class included eight faculty researchers, 10 REU students, one undergraduate technician, 10 graduate students, and two high school interns.