Rock Garden Quarterly Spring 2012 - (Page 135)

William J. Dress, 1918-2011 We kneW him as Bill … Bill was an involved member of the Adirondack Chapter for many years, officially serving terms as Board Chair and Treasurer but unofficially as one of our resident plant experts, occasional program speaker, plant donor, and generous “sharer” of plants, information, and “go to guy” Bill “in his element” for all questions Latin or taxonomic. We honored him with a Chapter Service Award in 1998. Even before our Chapter’s founding in 1976, Bill was part of an Ithacabased garden study group. Later, he was instrumental, along with others, in moving the Chapter’s meetings from Albany to Ithaca where there was a strong base of engaged members. As his health began to fail, he stopped attending Chapter meetings but continued to share his knowledge of plants. Bill Dress was born in Buffalo, earned an A.B. degree (1931) in classical languages at the University of Buffalo, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps (1942-45), then came to Cornell, earning his Ph.D. degree in botany. He taught taxonomy of cultivated plants, plant nomenclature and botanical Latin. His chief research interest was the taxonomy of Compositae and cultivated ornamentals in general. He edited two of Cornell Hortorium's journals – Baileya and Gentes Herbarum. For many years, he also served as the editor of the authoritative reference work Hortus Third: A Concise Dictionary of Plants Cultivated in the United States and Canada. He authored numerous articles on orchids, asters, cacti and milkweeds. In addition, a fossil flower named Dressiantha bicarpellata and Hosta ‘Bill Dress’s Blue’ were named in his honor. Through Bill's efforts, the town of Ithaca acquired Dress Woods, a 10acre site of mature forest bordering Culver Road on the town's west side that was long cared for by Dress. Bill died December 15, 2011 at his home at Kendal, Ithaca at the age of 93. Carol Eichler. William J. Dress, 1918-2011 135

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rock Garden Quarterly Spring 2012

Geoffrey Charlesworth Writing Prize
2011 Photo Contest Winners
2012 Photo Contest Announcement
Seven Unheralded Axioms of Rock Gardening
Rock Gardening from Scratch: Vegetative Propagation - Understanding Cuttings
Newfoundland's Southern Limestone Barrens
William J. Dress, 1918-2011
DNA and the Changing Names of Plants ... and Making Sense of the Dicots
Jennings Prairie
Carl Gehenio, 1922-2011
Rock Gardening Roots
Plants that Dazzled me in 2011
Phipps Conservatory
Rock and Ink Struck into Flowers - A Response
Bulletin Board
2012 - Eastern Study Weekend: October, Pittsburgh - Registration form and details

Rock Garden Quarterly Spring 2012