Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock
Monday, July 12, 2004: A proposal. Earlier this month, Carl Totemeier died. Didn’t know him though stopped at his stand at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market sometimes. He sold plants. In his retirement, he moved to Northwest Arkansas, but continued with his profession of horticulture and writing about that field. [Link to obit has expired.]
Besides a column in The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas and his nursery, Mr. Totemeier assisted the Botanical Society of the Ozarks in its creation of a regional botanic garden. In recent months he was its interim director, when there was a need for that. He did that until shortly before his passing, in fact.
The society should name the garden for him when it’s completed in a few months. That is the proposal.
Sure, the site could just be Ozark Botanic Garden, and that’s fine. But what should not happen is that a large corporate or individual benefactor get naming privileges, again — Enron Arena, anyone? Nor should Mr. Totemeier be honored with a bench or even herb garden or the petting garden in his name.
Let’s name an attraction like this for a good person just for him being a mensch. -30-
