Janet Meakin Poor (November 27, 1929 – June 21, 2017,

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

) was a

landscape design Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and garde ...

specialist based out of Winnetka,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. She was the great great niece of

American impressionist American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose ...

painter Lewis Henry Meakin.

Education

Poor received her education at University of Cincinnati. She later continued her studies at Triton College in River Grove before entering University of Wisconsin-Madison for landscape design and horticulture.

Career

She was vice president of the Garden Club of America, vice chairman on the board of trustees of the Center For Plant Conservation, chair of Open Days; 1989–2000, a showcase of hundreds of American gardens by the national organization

The Garden Conservancy The Garden Conservancy is an American nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve, share, and celebrate America's gardens and diverse gardening traditions for the education and inspiration of the public. Founded in 1989, by Frank Cabot ...

, advisor to the historic country estate at the

Filoli Filoli, also known as the Bourn-Roth Estate, is a country house set in of formal gardens surrounded by a estate, located in Woodside, California, about south of San Francisco, at the southern end of Crystal Springs Reservoir, on the east ...

Center near

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, on the awards committee at the

Winterthur Museum and Country Estate Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of Henry Francis du Pont (1 ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

, a board member with the

American Horticultural Society The American Horticultural Society (AHS) is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that promotes American horticulture. It is headquartered at River Farm in Alexandria, Virginia. History Established in 1922, the AHS is one of the oldest nat ...

, and a member of the advisory council of the

United States National Arboretum The United States National Arboretum is an arboretum in northeast Washington, D.C., operated by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. It was established in 1927 by an act of Congress after a campaign by USDA ...

, an appointment by the

United States Secretary of Agriculture The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments The department includes several organi ...

. She was also an advisor on the McKee Botanical Garden. She was a driving force behind saving and conserving the planet's botanical heritage. At 40, she decided to pursue her passion for plants in earnest. She cobbled together a landscape architecture degree from three different schools, traveling as far away as the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

to study. The mother of two then launched a career that led her to the forefront of plant conservation and landscape design locally, nationally and internationally, including serving as board chair of the

Chicago Botanic Garden The Chicago Botanic Garden is a botanical garden situated on nine islands in the northern Cook County Forest Preserves. It features 27 display gardens and five natural habitats including Mary Mix McDonald Woods, Barbara Brown Nature Reserve, Di ...

, where she headed an ambitious program to collect seeds from the world's endangered plants. The Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) took a leading conservation role nationally and internationally under Poor's leadership. She encouraged CBG into its participation in the international

Millennium Seed Bank Project The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (MSBP or MSB), formerly known as the Millennium Seed Bank Project, is the largest ''ex situ'' plant conservation programme in the world, coordinated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. After being award ...

. By 2010, seeds from thousands of the world's rare and threatened plants will be stored, some of them in Glencoe. She played a major role in the development of the new Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center at CBG, which provides laboratories and teaching facilities for more than 200 PhD scientists, land managers, students and interns. It opened in September 2009.

Personal life

She was married to Edward King Poor III in 1951, a partner in a recruiting firm and a keen golfer who served in the U.S. Army in World War II. He died in 2002. She outlived him by 15 years, eventually dying from complications of a stroke in Evanston Hospital. Prior to her death, she lived in the same house in Winnetka for fifty years. She had two sons: E.King Poor, a partner in a Chicago law firm and Thomas Meakin Poor, owner of the Bin 66 Fine Wine and Spirits in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Books

Poor was the editor of two books: * *

Janet Meakin Poor Symposium

The Janet Meakin Poor Symposium at the Chicago Botanic Garden was created to highlight the increasing need for a cooperative international plant conservation effort to better understand the impact of climate change on plants. Some of the best plant conservation research, practice, and outreach from around the globe will be highlighted. Internationally recognized experts will discuss global strategies for plant conservation through science and education. The Symposium is partially endowed by the friends of Janet Meakin Poor.

Awards

Poor's awards include: *Catherine H Sweeney Award from the American Horticultural Society *Hutchinson Award from the Chicago Horticultural Society 1994 *Creative Leadership Award and Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America *American Horticultural Society Book Award (for ''Plants That Merit Attention: Shrubs'') *Chicago Botanic Garden Horticulture Society Medal 1995 , Gold Medal Garden Design 1974

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poor, Janet Meakin American landscape architects American conservationists 1929 births 2017 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni American women landscape architects