William McNamara (horticulturist)

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Quarryhill Botanical Garden Emeritus President and Executive Director William McNamara Bill McNamara CHugo.jpg
Quarryhill Botanical Garden Emeritus President and Executive Director William McNamara

William A. McNamara is an American horticulturist and expert in the field of plant conservation and the flora of Asia. Now retired, he was the President and Executive Director of Quarryhill Botanical Garden, a 25-acre wild woodland garden in Northern California's Sonoma Valley featuring wild-sourced plants from temperate East Asia. [1] In 2017, he and Quarryhill Botanical Garden celebrated their 30th Anniversary. [2] He retired from the Garden in October of 2019. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

McNamara was born in 1950 in Logansport, Indiana, moved to Palo Alto, California when he was 11, and graduated from Palo Alto High School. During college, he worked at various nurseries in the San Francisco Bay Area and became a California Certified Nurseryman in 1973. After graduating in 1975 from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in English, he traveled around the world visiting gardens and remote areas. In 1980, he settled in Sonoma, California where he started Con Mara Gardens, a landscape contracting business. McNamara received a Master of Arts in Conservation Biology from Sonoma State University in 2005. He holds a third degree black belt in Aikido and received a Mokuroku Certificate in Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu in 1997.

Career

McNamara has been a Field Associate of the Botany Department at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco since 2000. McNamara shares his horticultural knowledge through presentations throughout the country and abroad, and he has been on the Garden Club of America's speakers list for conservation and horticulture since 2010. [4] [5]

He is considered a modern-day plant hunter. [6] In the company of horticulturists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Windsor Great Park, the Howick Arboretum, and others, McNamara has botanized extensively in the wilds of temperate East Asia. From 1987 to 2019, he participated in annual plant collecting expeditions to China, Japan, India, Nepal, Vietnam and Myanmar in search of plants for research, conservation, and stemming biodiversity loss. [7] [8]

William McNamara speaks at Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Sonoma Valley William McNamara at Quarryhill CHugo.jpg
William McNamara speaks at Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Sonoma Valley

Awards and honors

Named Honorary Member of The Garden Club of America, 2018 [9]

The Veitch Memorial Medal from Britain's Royal Horticultural Society, 2017 [10]

Liberty Hyde Bailey Award the American Horticultural Society, 2017 [11]

Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal, Scott Arboretum, 2010 [12]

National Garden Clubs Inc. Award of Excellence, 2013 [13]

California Horticultural Society Annual Award, 2012 [14]

The Garden Club of America’s Eloise Payne Luquer Meda,l 2009 [15]

Field Associate of the Department of Botany, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, 2000

Honorary Consultant of National Plateau Research Center of China, 2010

Honorary Researcher of the Scientific Information Center of Resources and Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2001

Articles

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. "Pacific Horticulture Society | Quarryhill Botanical Garden: A Sanctuary for Asian Plants". Pacific Horticulture Society. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  2. R. Gallyot, Seeds Near Extinction, retrieved 2018-04-17
  3. "After 32 years, a new director at Quarryhill Botanical Garden". Sonoma Sun | Sonoma, CA. 2019-06-13. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  4. "Quarryhill's McNamara gets dual international awards". Sonoma Index Tribune. 2017-03-15. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  5. "The Kenwood Press - Planting a seed". www.kenwoodpress.com. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  6. "William McNamara: Portrait of a Modern Plant Hunter - Kathryn Aalto". Kathryn Aalto. 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  7. Grizzle, Nicolas (Fall 2017). "Seed Champion" (PDF). Insights: 14–18.
  8. "Meet Glen Ellen's 'Indiana Jones' of rare plants". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 2017-03-27. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  9. Media, Colophon New. "2018 Honorary Members". www.gcamerica.org. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  10. "Royal Horticultural Society - Winners of RHS Awards Announced". press.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
  11. "Previous Winners | American Horticultural Society". ahsgardening.org. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  12. "Scott Medal and Award | Scott Arboretum". Scott Arboretum. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  13. "Home and garden briefs, upcoming events". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 2013-07-04. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  14. McNamara, William (August 20, 2012). "The Search for Acer Pentaphyllum" (PDF). Bulletin of the California Horticultural Society. 79 (8): 1.
  15. Media, Colophon New. "THE GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA". www.gcamerica.org. Retrieved 2018-05-01.