RIDGE ORCHID SOCIETY

  AN AFFILIATED SOCIETY OF THE AMERICAN ORCHID SOCIETY

            Jim became a bouncing baby boy in 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina where he grew up and often helped his parents who owned a Kitchen Remodeling business.

            He met the vivacious Emily Faunt and, when she was a sophomore in college in 1968, they married.

            He joined the Army and became a Chemical Officer, eventually retiring as a Major in 1990.  They spent a total of 7 years in Germany where he was a Nuclear Surety Officer working on the chemical protection of our troops and specializing in “Bugs, Gas and the Big Boom.”  They moved to Florida in 1984 and his talents were utilized in the Readiness Command at MacDill Air Force Base which morphed into the Special Operations Command.  We will always be thankful for his contributions to our safety.

While in their newfound paradise of Florida, he became an avid orchid grower, interested in species, but growing a wide variety of genera and hybrids.  His expertise in growing orchids from seed and doing all the flasking work made him so desirable as a “flasker” that he had to restrict his clients to a select few in order to have space for the flasks and time to enjoy life, otherwise, he would have had to go into full time work.

            When he joined the Judging Program in 1992 with 3 other students, they became known as “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and he insisted he was “Pestilence.”   He became fully accredited in 1998 and has judged in Kuala Lumpur at the 17^th World Orchid Conference as well as Chairing (with Emily) the Classification and judging at the 19^th WOC in Miami, the 17^th WOC in Kuala Lumpur and they were slated to Chair the Classification again at the 20^th WOC in Singapore in 2012. 

             The list of his accomplishments is too long to print, but includes:

            Vice-Chair of Judging at the Florida North Central Center

            AOS Affiliated Societies Member

            Board of Directors, Orchid Digest Corporation

            Past President, Tampa Orchid Club

            Winner of the Butterworth Award, given to the finest example of Culture of an orchid

            Winner of more than 30 awards from the AOS

            Host of “The Culture Club”’ with Boy Jim

            Much sought-after speaker for presentations including:

                Growing Orchids from Seed (the Sex Life of Orchids)

                Growing Paphiopedilums

                Growing Multi-floral Paphiopedilums

                Pests and Diseases, the Joy of Orchids

            Speaking to the British Paph Society in Winchester

            Curator of Orchids at the USF Botanical Gardens

            Coming in second place to Emily in fishing

             The list could go on for pages, but the reality is that Jim was involved with Emily in keeping us strong and safe, growing orchids, helping Societies both local and international in any way he could and being the kind of person who took a stand for what he believed, which he backed up with no-nonsense reasons made crystal-clear and stood his ground whether it was the most popular attitude at the time or not.  Many times history showed him to be correct.

            We will miss him terribly and his passing is our loss.  

 

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2009 The Year in Review

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ROS Display at Highlands County 2008

Ribbons Won at Highlands County Show 2008