Richard William Lighty

Member since: 2000

Inspired at an early age by Luther Burbank, Dr. Richard Lighty has been an academician, an educator and a public garden administrator in his long illustrious career. After finishing his graduate work on the chromosomes of Madonna Lilies at Cornell, he became the geneticist in charge of the experimental green¬house at Longwood Gardens where he introduced modern growing techniques with new soil media, fertilizers and disease prevention methods. As part of that program, he went on the first of many plant-finding expeditions, with trips to Korea, Japan, Central America, Nigeria and the eastern North American Pied¬mont. During the course of his career he has introduced more than 30 species and cultivars to the American landscape. In 1967, he became Director of the Longwood Graduate Program at the University of Delaware, training students in ornamental horticulture. As the Program expanded to include courses in business and economics, it evolved into the Program of Public Garden Administration. Among its many prestigious graduates are Judy Zuk, Jane Pepper, Paul Meyer, and Michael Balick. In 1982, along with Mr. and Mrs. Copeland, Dr. Lighty worked to establish the Mt. Cuba Center on the Copeland's 600 acre estate in northern Delaware. As the Center's first director, he helped Mrs. Copeland to plan the change from private estate to public garden whose mission is the study and conservation of the plants native to the Appalachian Pied¬mont. Its woodland wildflower gardens are considered the region's finest. Re¬tiring in 1998, he actively managed his 7-acre property in Kennett Square. He currently serves on the boards of The Garden Conservancy, Longwood Gardens, the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, and Stonecrop Gardens. His numerous awards include the Arthur H. Scott Medal and the Eloise Payne Luquer Award of The Garden Club of America, and he is an Honorary Life Member of the A.P.G.A. Member since 2000.