20 Years and Counting . . .

Wow . . . Guess what? This year marks the 20th publishing year of Landscape Architect and Specifier News . . . Wow . . .

First . . . a dose of humility and thankfulness . . . Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise . . .

Wow . . .

Then a dose of . . . cool . . . " I'd like to thank my parents and my wife and my in-laws, and my kids and all the great people who helped us climb this first leg . . . ."

Next a dose of reality . . . Having first published in 1985 and counting that year, LASN (or as it was originally named The Landscape Architect and Specifier News, but TLASN was more difficult to say quickly) has entered "Volume 20" . . . Sorry but I gotta say it . . .

Wow . . .

And what of John Duxbury, the principal founder of Rain Master Irrigation who pulled me aside at the CLCA Show in early ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Allan Evans . . . That 7:30 p.m. conversation in March ?EUR??,,????'?????<

What of Kevin and Chuck Sweazy of Chino Valley Trees who said, ?EUR??,,????'?????<

How about Denison Gold Label Nurseries and SeaTree and Valley Crest Tree Company. . . These companies paid for wildly generous ad programs in the very first months. You just had to feel that they, and others like them, were eager to get a fresh new voice reaching you . . . the Landscape Architect . . . and Specifier.

Without the foresight of those few individuals and groups, LASN would have been another "well we tried" instead of the number one . . . Wow . . .

I gotta call on the last day of my honeymoon in 1988 at 6:00 a.m. in Honolulu, from my best man, Marty Smith . . . the co-founder of LASN (more on him later).

"Ah . . . hello . . . Hey . . . I had to borrow 15K from Sully yesterday, to pay the print bill . . . I hope that's OK ?!?" . . . !!! . . . It's amazing what happens when guys like Sully and others take a chance and invest in the youth of the industry . . . Good things happen . . .

But still . . . why invest the time and energy and money to support a magazine for Landscape Architects . . . It was obviously a blessing . . . but it had to be that the timing was just right to open a line of communication to this budding ;-) profession . . .

Wow . . . it's been 20 years . . .

Donald Milton Roberts, FASLA (check the record on the FASLA and email me at earthmanX@landscapearchitect.com. I have a photo of the medal presentation) . . . Anyways . . . Don Roberts, FASLA, came to our door one day and said, as only a professor who had taught landscape architecture at UCLA from the early 1960s could say, "You guys don't know c--- about the landscape architectural profession. I guess I'm gonna have to teach you . . . Can I come in???" What a great guy . . . used to include weeping willows at strategic points along the freeways to give the homeless a bit of shelter . . . He had one of the first pacemakers ever installed (about the size of a telephone receiver) and eventually his heart just gave out . . . But his soul marks these pages even now . . .

And what of Kay Tiller . . . if you know Kay Tiller, raise your hand . . . OK . . . if you knew Kay or even knew of her . . . that Irish Texan, stout and stern as she was, was the "PR gal of the profession, honey . . ." She was quick as a rattlesnake and sweet as a southern belle and she knew everybody who knew anybody who knew anything at all . . . She adopted us as her kin and my kids still pray for Aunt Kay . . .

What? . . . OK . . . Oh, alright . . .

Well, they tell me that that?EUR??,,????'?????<

It won?EUR??,,????'?????<

- God Bless . . .