IN MEMORIAM

Ray Thomas Collett Jr.

Founding UCSC Arboretum Director

Professor of Natural Sciences

UC Santa Cruz

1932 - 2012

Ray Collett, the founding director of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, died on Wednesday, February 22. He was 79.

 

Ray, a professor emeritus of natural history, was a member of UCSC's 1965 founding faculty. As founding director of the Arboretum, he oversaw the conversion of about 130 acres of rough pastures into a leading horticultural site. The Arboretum is renowned for its collections of plants from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as California natives.

 

Ray Collett left the campus, the community, and the world a living memorial, not only here in the wonderful collections of the UCSC Arboretum, but also in the many cultivars and selections of plants he introduced to California gardeners.

 

He is credited with introducing many popular ornamental plants to the nursery industry. These include the 'Swan River' cultivar of the Australian "blue hibiscus" (Alyogyne huegelii), the 'Hurricane Point' cultivar of the California fuchsia (Epilobium canum), numerous Correa cultivars from Australia the UCSC Arboretum Leptospermum Tasman hybrids, and many others. He received several honors in recognition of his work, including the American Horticultural Society's 1986 Professional Citation, the California Horticultural Society's Annual Award for 1997, and the California Association of Nurserymen 1997 Research Award.

 

He was also a popular teacher, mentoring students who worked at the Arboretum and teaching courses in art, botany, biogeography, horticulture, and meteorology. He gathered plants for the Arboretum that would be useful for both teaching and research. Among the unusual plants he added to the Arboretum's collection was Amborella trichopoda, collected in 1975 from the South Pacific island of New Caledonia by a pair of UCSC students. In 1999, when a genetic analysis identified Amborella as the most ancestral living flowering plant, the UCSC Arboretum was the only botanic garden in the United States with living specimens.

 

Collett earned his B.A. in chemistry and Ph.D. in geography from UC Berkeley. His doctoral dissertation was Interpretations of California Landscapes. He worked at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the U.S. Weather Bureau before joining the UCSC faculty. He served as Arboretum director from 1965 through 1997.

 

Ray Collett was a brilliant and hugely influential individual. He was at once, director, professor, mentor, rabble- rouser, prod, and sometimes father figure. He died in the early morning of February 22, 2012, in the Arboretum residence surrounded by his amazing plant collections and a loving Arboretum extended family. He was lucid and good- natured to the very end, visiting with former students, friends, and colleagues before he gently slipped away.

 

Some cultures believe that people are alive on this earth until the last of us who knew them in person, is gone. The Arboretum itself is a living witness to Ray’s fascination with biogeography and nature’s evolutionary experimentation with plants. He felt strongly that students should enjoy and pursue their own fascinations with the natural world. When he died, Ray was engaged in many projects including his work with native trilliums, violets and a book, Fragrant Plants of the West. That book will be available online in early 2013.

 

Many people have shared stories about Ray and here are a few excerpts.

 

Founding UCSC Chancellor, Dean McHenry affectionately referred to Ray as the “Shy Genius.”

 

Ed Landels, for whom the New Zealand Garden was named, once characterized Ray as being “...worth paying admission.”

 

UCSC Professor Emeritus of Biology, Todd Newberry said that “Ray Collett personified UCSC at its very best: vision, integrity, imagination, accomplishment.”

 

Rodger and Gwen Elliot, among the worlds most highly decorated horticulturists and Australian native plant conservationists, said that “...meeting Ray Collett changed our lives forever.”

 

Richard Turner, Editor of Pacific Horticulture, wrote recently “...Ray has certainly left an exceptional legacy, in the Arboretum and its collections, in the introductions of many fine plants, and in countless students who benefited from his knowledge. Would that we all were able to make so many wonderful contributions to the world.”

 

Luen Miller, a student of Ray’s from the 1970s and local nurseryman wrote, “Essentially all of what we see at the Arboretum today is the result of over thirty years of Ray’s interest, vision, and direction. He was arguably the first person in California horticulture to correctly understand the cultural needs and preferences of plants such as Grevillea and Leucadendron that have become critically important to gardeners, landscapers and nursery professionals throughout California. Under his direction the Arboretum certainly made more worthwhile, lasting introductions to our trade than any other institution in the US, possibly in the world.”

 

Brett Hall

Arboretum Director

UCSC Santa Cruz, CA