Diane Ragone

2016 Medal of Honor

In recognition of her contributions to conservation, agricultural diversity, sustainability, and food security in the tropics through the collection, cultivation, research, and distribution of breadfruit.

Proposed by: Hillsborough Garden Club, Zone XII

Diane is an authority on the conservation of breadfruit and leads a global effort to expand its cultivation and use. Dr. Ragone has conducted ethnobotanical studies on this Pacific staple crop for 30 years on 50 islands in Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia. Through her extensive fieldwork, NTBG established the world’s largest collection of over120 varieties of breadfruit. The Institute launched a Global Hunger Initiative in 2009 to distribute nutritious varieties of breadfruit for food security, sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, and income generation in the tropics. Breadfruit tree planting projects are underway in 35 countries. Dr. Ragone holds a Ph.D. and a MS in Horticulture from the University of Hawaii. She serves as President of the Society of Economic Botany. Dr. Ragone received the Star of Oceania award in 2013 and Distinguished Alumni award in 2015 from U of HI’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

The Medal of Honor is awarded for outstanding service to horticulture.

The Medal of Honor is The Garden Club of America's oldest national award. It was first given to Charles Sprague Sargent, a Harvard University professor and the founding director of the Arnold Arboretum, in 1920, and endowed in 1963 by the Bedford Garden Club, Zone III, in memory of member Alice Mary Sloane Anderson (Mrs. Arthur Marvin Anderson: 1888–1961). The medal was designed in 1920 by sculptor John Flanagan who also designed the original US quarter dollar coin that was first issued in 1932.

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