Harry C. Kohl Jr.

Harry Charles Kohl, Jr., Environmental Horticulture: Davis

From the University of California Calisphere (link)

With the passing of Harry Charles Kohl, Jr., on September 23, 1996, the Department of Environmental Horticulture at Davis lost its senior emeritus faculty member and the Department's founding chair. Born in 1919 in St Louis, Missouri, Harry learned the horticultural trade and the value of hard work at an early age, helping out in the family's greengrocer and butcher shop. Economic considerations always were incorporated into the work that he did throughout his long career of research, teaching and outreach for the floriculture industry.

After receiving his B.S. from the University of Illinois in 1940, Harry served in the cavalry during the war rising to the rank of major. He transferred to the army air corps, and served as a fighter pilot in China and India. After the war Harry returned to the University of Illinois, where he obtained his M.S. in floriculture in 1948. Two years later, he completed a Ph.D. in floriculture at Cornell with Kenneth Post.

Following Harry's appointment in 1953 to the Department of Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture at UCLA, he developed a program combining basic and applied research that responded to the needs of California's fledgling floriculture industry and ensured his nationwide recognition as a leading plant scientist and horticulturist. In 1963, the family moved to Davis, when departments from UCLA and UCD were combined. Harry served as chair of the Department of Environmental Horticulture from 1966 to 1973.

Harry published more than 160 articles in the scientific and popular press, and his research was supported by grants from industry and government agencies. His research made seminal contributions to floriculture, combining fundamental studies on the bases of crop productivity and flower senescence with application of his findings to increasing efficiency of commercial greenhouse production. In the later stages of his career and as an emeritus professor he was active in breeding programs addressing major industry problems, including successful efforts to return scent to large-flowered cyclamen hybrids, and to develop low-disbud standard carnation lines. His seed-propagated Easter lilies continue to be of great interest to the industry; colleagues are completing the study that he initiated, which could change the production system for this important ornamental crop.

Students enjoyed Harry's command of the science and technology of floricultural production. His keen interest in distance learning as an opportunity for the University to expand the reach of its educational programs long pre-dated the current enthusiasm for this topic.

An active member of the American Society for Horticultural Science, Harry served terms as chair of the Floriculture Section, and on the Industry Coordination Committee. His achievements in research and teaching, and his service to the profession were recognized by his election as fellow of the Society.

Following his retirement in 1986, Harry was an active emeritus. He continued to help the floriculture industry and the University, serving for a period as Executive Director of the Saratoga Horticultural Foundation, on several college and campus committees, and as an active member of the Friends of the Arboretum. He was generous with his time in serving on department, college, and campus committees, but woe betide the unwary committee chair who scheduled a meeting over the lunch hour. Harry's passion for a lunch-time game of bridge brooked no interference from matters scientific or administrative.

One of Harry's great interests as a member of the Emeritus Association was recording the lifetime contributions of retired Davis faculty. As a key member of a committee appointed by the Association to create videotaped interviews of distinguished emeriti, Harry was both cameraman and editor. On his desk, the day after his sudden death, we found a note to an emeritus colleague that might have been considered our charge in composing this memorial. “These are the instructions for the memorial,” Harry wrote. “Try not to look on this as a painful experience, but as a chance to honor a friend. I'll help where I can.”

Harry leaves his wife, Martha, daughter, Carol, an empty chair at the lunch-time bridge session, and a host of friends and colleagues who remember him fondly for his kindness and good humor, and as a man of ideas, enthusiasm, and action.