Gardener works to preserve history of campus trees

By Nancy Wick
University Week

The Miller elm, just south of the HUB, commemorates Francis G. Miller, who served as the first dean of the School of Forestry from 1907 to 1912.

Most people can feel themselves surrounded by history on the University campus. It’s an easy thing to do in the presence of buildings constructed early in the 20th century and named for the leaders who occupied them. It’s no wonder, then, that UW employee Jim Kerin calls himself a history buff and talks enthusiastically about campus landmarks. But the landmarks he speaks of aren’t buildings; they’re trees and other plants - which reflects Kerin’s interests. He’s a gardener, has been for 25 years.

But not for much longer. In May, Kerin will retire from his position, leaving a legacy of sorts. He’s compiled a listing of historic and commemorative trees and other plants on campus, a listing he continues to add to and hopes will be preserved.

“I think this is important information and I don’t want it to be lost,” Kerin says.

His own interest was piqued a few years ago when he ran across what is generally known as the “Brockman Tree Tour.” The late C. Frank Brockman was a professor emeritus of forestry in 1980 when Louise Hastie, who edited a publication called University Report, worked with him to create a tour of campus trees. Essentially, an issue of the Report was given over to the tour, which contained a map and many photos.

Included along with scientific information about the trees was the history of certain significant ones, such as the Washington elm. The Washington elm originally was planted in 1902 from a cutting of the tree in Cambridge, Mass., under which tradition says George Washington stood when he took command of the Continental Army.

In 1923 the Cambridge tree died and a new one was planted from a cutting of the UW tree. Then in 1963 the UW tree died after being struck by lightning and it in turn was replaced by a cutting from the new Cambridge tree. Today’s Washington elm stands between Clark Hall and the Communications Building.

The Brockman Tree Tour was a phenomenally popular publication at the time and went through several reprints. So it’s no surprise that someone would want to update it and in 1995, someone did - surprisingly as part of a public artwork. Visual artists Suzanne Hellmuth and Jock Reynolds designed the two bus shelters and the Medicinal Herb Garden Volunteer Center on Stevens Way, deliberately creating openings in the shelters that “frame” nearby trees.

Jim Kerin points out a plaque at the base of two English hollies outside the Art Building. The trees, nicknamed George and Martha, were propagated from seed from hollies at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home.

Simultaneously, a new tree tour was written by Arthur Lee Jacobson, author of numerous books about trees. Dubbed the C. Frank Brockman Memorial Tree Tour (Brockman died in 1985), it is sold for $1.50 through a vending machine near the bus shelters and is available online at [ this site ]. The new tour, which includes Brockman’s photos, contains a wealth of information about the 80 trees it features.

But what’s missing from this new tree tour is information about historic and commemorative aspects of the trees. It was that information that Kerin wanted to capture and preserve. The original Brockman Tree Tour, he points out, is long out of print (and out of date) and not available to most people.

“After I’d compiled the information I read it to the gardeners, and many of them weren’t aware of this history,” Kerin says. “If they don’t know about it, I doubt that many other people do.”

Edmond Meany would certainly approve. Meany, the legendary history professor who taught here from 1897 to 1932 and for whom Meany Hall is named, was responsible for the first tree plantings on campus. A lecturer in forestry as well as a history professor, Meany started a seed exchange program with botanical gardens in other areas of the nation and abroad. He nurtured the seeds in his home garden, then transplanted the seedlings to the campus.

Many of the trees Meany planted have been displaced by construction, but according to Kerin, a giant sequoia at the southeast corner of Smith Hall survives and is known as the Meany sequoia.

Meany is also responsible for another interesting tree that Kerin has written about - the Napoleon willow. Meany visited the island of St. Helena where Napoleon was originally buried and saw a weeping willow growing near the tomb. He took a cutting and smuggled it home in his suitcase, then planted it in the wettest spot he could find - which was then near a small stream.

Unfortunately, the willow had to be cut down to make way for the Triangle Garage in 1984, but nursery worker Carol Hooey had the foresight to make cuttings of it. “They sat around in the nursery for a long time and nothing was done with them,” Kerin said. But he had also kept a cutting himself, which he eventually brought in and planted south of the new Physics/Astronomy Building. The tree is still tiny, he says.

There are no present-day Meanys securing cuttings of historic trees for the campus, but Kerin says it’s actually possible to buy such cuttings from a catalog. He has, for example, seen advertised cuttings from a tree that grows in a park across the street from Martin Luther King’s first church. The story goes that on hot days the congregation would listen to Dr. King’s sermons under the shade of the tree, and Kerin thinks it would be interesting to have a scion of that tree on campus.

Propagating such historical trees may be waning in popularity, but another practice that Kerin is interested in - commemorative trees and plants - is going strong. The best known commemoratives on campus are the 58 sycamore trees that were planted along Memorial Way in memory of the UW faculty and students who died in World War I.

But they are far from the only memorials on campus. Near the Health Sciences Center, for example, are two eastern red buds planted in memory of organ donors by their recipients. And the Miller elm, just south of the HUB, commemorates Francis G. Miller, who served as the first dean of the School of Forestry from 1907 to 1912.

Some of the special trees Kerin writes about have plaques to identify them and some don’t. Even more reason for him to want to leave behind the information he’s managed to gather - information that soon may be more widely available. Jon Hooper, manager of the Outside Maintenance Zone, says he may include it in the department’s new Web site, which is currently under construction. That would please Kerin.

“You know, Meany always thought of the campus as more than just the University grounds,” he says. “He always referred to it as the University grounds and arboretum. I just couldn’t see letting all this be forgotten.”