Honoring a Quintessential Master Gardener

I was saddened to learn that Dr. Jean Natter recently passed away. Her obituary details a remarkable life of learning, love of science, and service.

I came to know Jean through my work with the Oregon State University Extension Master Gardener^TM Program, where Jean was a long-time volunteer educator. For many years, she taught the entomology and integrated pest management classes to new Master Gardener trainees in Washington, Clackamas, and Multnomah counties, where she helped others transform an aversion to insects into appreciation and fascination for these small wonders in our gardens. She was a prolific writer who contributed hundreds of columns (“Natter’s Notes“) to monthly Master Gardener newsletters, where she educated others about a range of topics, including new and emerging pests in our region, how to manage ants in the house or weeds in the garden, and how to recognize herbicide damage on garden plants. Although written for the Metro Master Gardener counties, other counties often picked up and republished “Natter’s Notes”.

The topic and timing of each column was often driven by the questions she fielded on the Metro (Oregon) Master Gardener hotline or through the national Ask Extension helpline. She paid attention to the type of information that gardeners were seeking, and proactively provided information to help. On the national helpline, alone, she answered over 4000 gardening questions! To put that number into perspective, if I were to answer a question a day, each and every workday, it would take me 16 YEARS to match the number of questions that Jean answered. And this calculation does not take into account the number of questions she fielded through the Master Gardener hotline and local Extension offices. If these statistics were available, we would likely see that it would add an additional 3X to 4X more questions answered at the local level.

For her many and impactful contributions to both the OSU Extension Master Gardener Program and to Oregon’s gardening community, Jean was selected as ‘Master Gardener of the Year’ in 2007. In 2011, she was awarded the Master Gardener Program’s other top honor: the Behind the Scenes Award, making her one of a select few individuals awarded both honors.

I met Jean shortly after I arrived in Oregon. I was new to the Master Gardener Program, and was trying to find my footing as the Statewide Master Gardener Program Coordinator. I created and taught an urban pesticide reduction program. Jean was one of the few Master Gardener volunteers who signed up and completed the program. In the realm of fun gardening topics, pesticides rank low on the list. But technical topics attract, rather than repel the insatiably curious. Jean was committed to learning and teaching science-based information that supported sustainable gardening. Her questions challenged me to think more deeply about the content and way that I teach, which ultimately helped me to become a better Extension educator.

When it was time for me to go up for promotion to Associate Professor with tenure, Jean was one of the people I included on my list of ‘stakeholder evaluators’. I knew that she would be a tough, discerning, and fair evaluator. I would get no free pass from Jean! But I didn’t want a free pass. I wanted to know whether I was up to the job, and how I could improve. I figured that if Jean (and other tough, discerning, and fair evaluators) thought I should continue in the job, that I was on the right track.

I recently had a chance to give Jean’s son Russell and daughter-in-law Betsy a tour of the Garden Ecology Lab, and to talk about our recent and current studies. I chuckled when I shared the results of our study of Master Gardener-tended soils. “Jean would have liked this one”, I remarked. When Russell later remarked that he thought that Jean would have liked to be a student in our lab group, I treasured it as one of the highest compliments I have ever received.

Jean’s family has established a memorial fund (current use) and a memorial endowment fund in her name. I am honored, more than words can adequately express, that the proceeds of the funds support the Garden Ecology Lab and help to advance the science of sustainable gardening.

Those interested in donating in Jean’s memory are encouraged to support their local Master Gardener program or to donate to the Jean Russell Natter Memorial Endowed Fund at Oregon State University Foundation in support of the Oregon Garden Ecology Lab.

Donations can be made at the Oregon State University Foundation giving page at give.fororegonstate.org

In the “I want to give to” box, type in “Jean Russell Natter”. You can give to the Memorial Fund for gifts immediately available to the Garden Ecology Lab’s work or to the Memorial Endowed Fund to increase the fund that will support the Lab in perpetuity. Thank you for considering a donation.

---

---