(Pastor speaking:)

     On behalf of the Melvin family may I begin by sharing a word of appreciation for all who have come to participate and to share in this memorial service for Lionel Dane Melvin, Senior. Our traditions, most of the time, bring us in touch with the service we usually refer to as the "Funeral Service" but today, we are celebrating a memorial service for Lionel Melvin, and in the memorial context it is a time in which we celebrate and give thanks for the life of one who has been special to us in a lot of different ways. As many of you know, Lionel has already been interred, and certainly today we come to remember his life with thanksgiving and with gratitude.

     May we hear God's word as He speaks to us: Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life, He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die". "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?"
Let us pray:

     Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we ask your blessings now upon this type of remembrance. We give you thanks for the life of Lionel Melvin, for the relationships that were shared here by so many with him and his family. And we pray now for your presence among us as we come to give you thanks for one who has blessed our lives in so many good ways. And so it is a joy to come together here this day as we celebrate his life and thank you for the many good memories that are now a part of our lives. For it is in Christ's name that we pray, Amen.

     In beginning, I'd like to share with you a couple of passages of scripture that speak about the beauty of the Earth, beauty of Nature, certainly that which Lionel Melvin was very much in touch with throughout all of his life.

     The first passage comes from Psalm One hundred and four:

     Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and with majesty.
....
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
They flow between the hills.
Giving drink to every wild animals; (sic.)
The wild animals quench their thirst by the streams.
The birds of the air have their habitation;
They sing among the branches.
From Your lofty abode You water the mountains;
The Earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
And plants for people to use,
To bring forth food from the earth,
And wine to gladden the human heart,
Oil to make the face shine,
And bread to strengthen the human heart.
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
The cedars of Lebanon that he planted,
In them, the birds build their nests,
The stork has its home in the fir trees.
....
O Lord, how manifold are Your words!
In wisdom, You have made them all;
The earth is full of Your creatures.
....
May the glory of the Lord endure for ever!
....

     Then in the Gospel of Matthew, we learned a lot about life from nature. And I'm sure that Lionel Melvin learned a lot about life, how to live it, about his relationships with others as he worked with nature and saw the beauty of that which God had created.

     The passage here comes from Matthew the sixth chapter, beginning at verse twenty-five:

     Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your spand (sic.) of life?
And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was not clothed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry, saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or `What will we wear?'
For it is the Gentiles who strive for all of these things; indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things.
But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well.
So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.

     As we remember the life of Lionel Melvin, we remember him as one who was very much in touch with God's creation. And certainly it is as one enjoys the beauty of what God has created, it is in that relationship that they are able to see and to share a lot about life. Someone had shared with me earlier how Lionel used to enjoy welcoming the school children to come to his place to look at the wild flowers. And to think about someone who was not only in touch with beauty of nature but one who valued the learning not only for himself but the learning of small children, says a lot about the character of the one that we remember here this day in this memorial service.

     As you look at your order of service, we will be sharing together in somewhat of a different type service than you may be accustomed to. And Ken Moore is here from Chapel Hill. He is the assistant director of the North Carolina Botanical Gardens. He was a colleague of Lionel Melvin, and he will be sharing with us following the music in a moment, and then there will be an opportunity for those of you who would like to share your remembrances of Lionel Melvin to do that. And then you will see there other items that will be a part of this memorial service. And so, let us continue now to join together as we remember Lionel Melvin with thanksgiving as we celebrate his life here this day.

     [Piano music, instrumental solo (Strauss?)]

(Ken Moore speaking:)

     I'm obviously sad of being here today honoring the passing of one of the individuals that I consider of the true greats in my world of Botany, Horticulture, and Ecology. I'm also honored and very priviledged to be here to reflect on just some of the many wonderful things that Lionel certainly meant to me in my life. And during the last couple of days as I've been reflecting on what I would share with you folks I'm more aware of some other special qualities of Lionel which I think I had taken for granted and.... You know, it's wonderful it's incredible happiness to reflect back on those folks who though they are physically not with us anymore they are so ever present and I want to share some of those with you in the next several minutes. In many respects, I feel like I'm not (untelligible) person to be up here because I didn't have that much time directly involved with Lionel. In my meetings with him, were not many. But I deal, in thinking back on those experiences, that there's perhaps no other individual who has affected me through those few meetings and certainly continues to affect me through the comments and the actions of the many other people who knew him much better.

     The... One of the underlying thoughts that comes to me about Lionel is... I... I don't believe I know of anyone who had such a grasp of the botany, the knowledge of the nuances, the ecology and the distinctions between the... in the great diversity of our North Carolina heritage of wildflowers, ferns, trees, and shrubs; and certainly, the wonderful characteristic places where those special plants grew. I also don't think I know of a single individual who was any more genuinely sincere and honest and wanting to share with people and... and his kindness with people and in never taking any credit for the things that really he deserved credit for himself. Thinking back in my... my times with him he was always talking about what other people were doing. What wonderful things his friends or associates had... had done. So that... I... One of the other things I'm going to do this afternoon is share with you my recollections of Lionel through his own words.

     I am fortunate enough to have access to the... the whole set of the Newsletters and the records of the Wildflower Society. And The North Carolina Wildflower Society is how I came to know Lionel originally, because when I started almost thirty years ago at the Botanical Garden there at the University at Chapel Hill, I, in the early '70's heard about the Wildflower Society, and so I started going to those meetings. And that's where I started seeing and knowing Lionel Melvin. The single most characteristic of those meetings.... Well, there're two, one of them I'll share at the very end. But I remember always, those meetings, we would have these field trips at all parts of the state, and we'd be strung out in these long lines, because most of the woodland paths were rather narrow and we had Lionel Melvin and other... and many of the other great botanists: Dr. Hechenbleikner^*, Dr. Totten, in the early years, even B. W. Wells, and lots of people who were certainly well versed in the botany of our wonderful state.

     I would periodically go back, up and down the lines, and I would invariably find some group of inquisitive members of the Wildflower Society who were sort of off in a little area off the path, and they were examining some twig or some leaf and, for instance you... I think all of you are familiar with the number... we have lots of hickories in the state, and I find them very confusing, people would want to know the differences. Lionel was always at the center of describing some tiny characteristic that was like: "Two hairs on a leaf margin" that was different than other species. And... and I... I'll never know the hickories like he. And I'm just always so appreciative of people like Lionel who in his time learned so much about our natural world.

     One of the individuals who was a close associate of Lionel and certainly a colleague and contemporary of mine is Benson Kirkman who called me this morning at the office before I left to come here. And he was just... wanted to share with me his... his sadness at not being able to be here today. He visited Lionel many, many times at his home, just down the road there, and he shared many experiences and stories and activities around the many native plants that Lionel brought in. Benson mentioned this one thing that certainly was on his mind that he wanted to share with you folks were he able to be here, so I told him I would do the best I could. He said that he remembers a comment from Dr. Al Radford. Now Dr. Al Radford is perhaps considered the premier botanist of the... of the state of North Carolina. He has been at the University for many, many years. I studied under him. Lionel Melvin certainly knew him very well and worked with him. Dr. Radford related to Benson that Lionel Melvin was finest, greatest amateur botanist and ecologist that he had ever known, and then he went on to elaborate. He said, "By amateur, I mean, he doesn't have a Ph. D.". That comment, coming from Al Radford was really giving credit to Lionel who did not go on to get a Ph. D. But he was giving credit to Lionel Melvin as being as accomplished as all of those Ph. D. ecologists and botanists and horticulturists running around the state getting credit for writing the books and... and the monographs. Lionel, in Dr. Radford's opinion, was as good, if not perhaps better, than any of the... of so-called titled names. And, you know, we will never know all the contributions that Lionel himself made to many of the publications: The Flora of the Carolinas, the Coker and Totten Trees and Shrubs of the Carolinas, plus some of the monographic studies of our natural flora. He just was so wonderful with his sharing his knowledge and never really was concerned about taking the credit. So that from Benson Kirkman was just one of the many stories that I know that Benson has to relate.

     The Totten Center at the Botanical Garden is named for Addie and Roland Totten. And I believe it's the Tottens that is really the connection of... that I have with the Botanical Garden and with Lionel Melvin. Lionel studied under Dr. Totten, and he absolutely adored both of the Tottens as they did likewise--they thought so highly of him. In 1976, when the Botanical Garden's only building was dedicated--it was called the Totten Center in memory of Addie and Roland Totten--Lionel Melvin presented us with a woody specimen called the "Totten Oak". And I want to read just the last bit: I have here a reprint of... from the Elisha Mitchell Journal: "The New Hybrid Oak from the Piedmont of North Carolina", by Lionel Melvin. And it goes on with the description about where it was found and all of the particulars about it, and there's even as appropriate or necessary--it's all written in Latin--, but right at the bottom he has a little bit of text that is his own contribution to this otherwise very proper account. He said, "So far I have been able to learn of, there is no hybrid, no hybrid Quercus michauxii.... This is... what... what he had done... he discovered an unusual oak. Now oaks, in our state, there're several, well there're a number of true species, but there are many, many, many more hybrids. Because oaks are very "promiscuous", and they get together out there in the night, and in the days when we're not aware of what's going on in the sex world of the... of the trees and shrubs, and they produce all kinds of offspring. And then the botanists are going crazy, and getting credit, getting Ph. D.'s, trying to create new species, what have you.

     Lionel found this unusual oak, and he thought it was a little different, so he thought it was close to a particular species, of Michaux's Oak, so he took it to his mentor, Dr. Totten, and Dr. Totten was a specialist in the woody plants, and he thought, "Well, there's something a little different about this". So the two of them worked together and they finally determined that it was a special hybrid between two different species of oak. And so, in honor of Dr. Totten, Lionel named it the Totten Oak. So he says, "So far I have been able to learn, no hybrid of Quercus michauxii, by Quercus lyrata has been recorded. And it pleases me to name it Quercus totteni in honor of Henry Roland Totten who first recognized the tree as a hybrid. Dr. Totten has spent a lifetime in the study of trees of the southeastern states and I know of no more deserving of this small honor." Well now, we have that Totten Oak that's growing... it's not as tall as the church here yet, but I dare say it's going to be. And we're now having to eliminate some other trees that were there close by, because the Totten Oak is so special. We have it labeled, "The Totten Oak". And what is certainly in my mind now, in thinking more specifically about Lionel, and certainly reading this last little bit here. We're going to elaborate on that label, because obviously, the... Lionel saw to it that the Totten Oak honors Dr. Totten. However, we need to honor that Totten Oak with a special recognition of attributing the recognition of something that was unusual to Lionel Melvin, because Dr. Totten would not have had the opportunity to know that there might have been something unusual (unclear, perhaps "if") Lionel Melvin, with his keen eye, had not observed this out in the wild where he spent so much of his time.

     Another aspect of... well... Lionel... (unclear, perhaps "was such a...") perhaps one of the keenest observers of our natural heritage. And is is wonderful that we have the comment about how Lionel shared with the children, because that's an experience that I didn't have the opportunity to have with Lionel because I was always with Lionel and the adults of the Wildflower Society. Or the few times that he may have... I may have been with the Garden when he passed through there. But I do re... that did remind me that he in some occasions did reflect on the youngsters--obviously he did here at his own place.

     Just as an example how keen he was about observing everything in our natural world: I think all of you folks, and I'm assuming that we have a number of people here who are not the kind of avid botanists or horticulturists that Lionel and a number of his friends are, but I think everybody has taken a walk in our woods, and you know the common evergreen Christmas fern. It grows everywhere. I know certainly Nell Lewis^** here, who is a long time friend of many of us, and is a specialist of... on ferns but I would defer to her on fern identification any day of the week. Well, the Christmas fern, is as I said, it's... it's everywhere in just a little bit of moist soil throughout the state from the coast to the high mountains. And it's a beautiful fern. There are millions out there. You... And you're walking through the forest you may see one, here or there, or several clumps, or you may just see mats of them. And they all look alike. This, this is a typical Christmas fern and I've always admired them because they're just so beautiful, and I've always admired just the plain Christmas fern. Well, in Lionel's collection, of... there... just imagine the keenness of an individual walking through all of these woods and seeing just hundreds and hundreds of Christmas ferns all at once. He has a selection of Christmas ferns, any one of them would be worthy of a prize botanical specimen. Here's one. Same Christmas fern, but look how different. And here are two... other words, different plants, and if you were taking a closer look you would see that they are quite different. They almost look like the little ruffled Boston ferns that people hang in their homes during the wintertime, but these are two more forms of our common Christmas fern.

     This meant... Lionel was so keen--just imagine him picking out these individual specimens in a sea of thousands--it's just most remarkable, so that he is leaving a legacy in just some of the plants alone that I think of... it's just that's going to be the responsibility of myself and Benson Kirkman and a number of other botanists and horticulturists who have known Lionel over the years to make certain that these plants continue and are propagated and increased so that they can be enjoyed by other people.

     Now I want to share from Lionel's own words from some of the early newsletters of the Wildflower Society. Lionel was the president during the '56 and '57 period and 1958. And that's before I came on the scene. But it's wonderful to see his... how he relates to people. (Unintelligible. Perhaps, "In these comments..."), and I hope you will bear with me for a few minutes; reading these the other day it certainly characterized for me, the underlying sincerity and the caring that Lionel had for other people, and his continuing trait of not taking credit for the many things that he was doing and trying to do. Here's one excerpt: They're in these newsletters--they're much fancier now--but in the old days they were just mimeograph sheets. And there was always a president's message at the beginning, which is a tradition that we still... we still have. And this one portion: "As president, my contribution to the activities of the Society have been brief, but I have really tried in that short time to enlarge upon the preservation phase of our aims, and in doing so, I have learned that only through the constant watchfulness of organizations like ours can some of our rarer, interesting, and often beautiful wildflowers and native plants be preserved for posterity. Our landscape is changing so rapidly now that entire species may be exterminated overnight. The average man is not conscious of the destruction he creates. It is up to those of us who are interested in and know our wildflowers to prevent their extermination and assure their preservation." Now this was in April of 1957, and how appropriate this sounds today. I mean, it's as if we're... in a... we haven't gotten the message yet.

     Lionel, among his horticultural and botanical specialities: he was perhaps the supreme conservationist, and the... and had a supreme reverence for life, and the... the world in which our life certainly is a... is taking place. Another one of the president's messages is very short. There was a period during that couple of years, that Lionel was having to be out of state, so that's why he relates it--he was... he was absent. And I think this was so... so genuinely him: "Your president was not here at the time of the spring meeting in trying(?), but upon returning to the state, he was pleased to learn that he is not indispensible to society. Your officers and members have carried on the work of the organization very well without him. When a group of people, even though small in number, are dedicated to a purpose and have banded together as have we, furtherance of that purpose shall be attained whether or not the appointed leader is present." How wonderfully appropriate!

     And in this last president's message--this is as he was taking leave of office, "Was there ever...." This was in April of 1958--and if you can almost imagine his walking through his own woods, or through anybody's woods, from his writing this to the members, "Was there ever a spring so welcome as this! After the severest winter in many years, we walk out among our garden flowers and marvel at the endurance of those (unintelligible, perhaps "floral gay") gems that survive the extreme cold. Not all, however have survived. The native wild flowers did best of all. Very few, if any, of mine failed to pull through. Another argument for more extensive cultivation of native plants. My term as president expires this coming May. With apologies for my shortcomings, I wish to state that I have enjoyed every minute spent in the work of our organization. I enjoyed it even though I failed in accomplishing certain things. Your friendship has added much to my life, and I shall always cherish our too seldom contacts." (Aside) Sounds exactly what I'm saying to him at this very moment! "Let us cooperate to the fullest, the efforts of our new officers that we shall install in the next general meeting." Again, just part of Lionel's generosity in his un... unselfish sharing of the world around him.

     Now this next one is a bit longer, and I just feel(?) obliged to share it with you because it's so much a statement of what he was all about, and so it gives us a challenge to continue trying to carry on in our small way those wonderful conservation activities and those just general life activities of sharing and being kind to your fellow man that we all are challenged to continue. This is a short article called, "Love and Fear" and of course it is about conservation and plants. Says, "Our Wildflower Preservation Society has a jump of almost two decades on the current conservation craze which has brought about the involvement of millions of people and their governments. The differences in our organization's attitude on conservation and that of the new ecology cult is that of love and fear. We are members of our organization because we have a sincere love of nature, and wish to preserve the wild natives which contribute to its beauty. The recently aroused conservationists are motivated by fear of losing an environment essential to their survival, which is all right too, but less altruistic or commendable. No organization in the state has been more fortunate than ours in having competent guidance by North Carolina's best in their particular fields of science." And here is where you are going to hear that litany of the greats that I mentioned earlier. "Men like Drs. Totten, Wells, Harper, Freeman, Rogers, Bell, Radford, Hechenbleikner, Kendall, and the late Dr. Blomquist had greatly enriched our lives by sharing with us their knowledge of plants and plant environments, and above all their enthusiasm for these things. How well these men could have used the support of the new ecology element back when Dr. Harper was saying, 'Leave nature alone', when Dr. Totten advised, 'Leave some for seed', when Dr. Wells pleaded with an indifferent legislature to save the Burgaw savannah, when Dr. Rogers warned us to watch where we put our big foot, and when Dr. Blomquist, in speaking against pollution along our highways advocated that the offenders, in quotes, 'Be taken out and be shot before sunrise'." Now--this is Bill Arnold talking--"Of course, the statement by Dr. Blomquist was figurative, but it does indicate that these men were, and are, very sensitive to, and felt strongly about the callous destruction and pollution of nature." "Perhaps now, the emotion of fear will bring about what... that which Dr. Blomquist and all the others failed in appealing to man's finer instincts. For having known them, the shadowy forest, the clear stream, old fields, and the open meadows, each with their particular kind of flowers offer us greater understanding of nature and its wonderous ways. A people's culture does not arise in a generation. It takes many, and each adds a small part. Certainly that part contributed by our learned members of our Wildflower Society is more than worthy of the generation to which we belong. May the continuity of this culture prevail against the efforts of those who would break with tradition, belittle our heritage, and adulterate our culture with poor substitutes." And this is signed "Lionel Melvin, August 12, 1970". He wasn't taking any credit himself, was he? And certainly as we honor him today, he is certainly one of those greats who went before him and certainly has gone before us. And so I hope that will perhaps urge all of us in our little bitty way to take a more sincere part in whether it's... it's dealing with our fellow people or taking a softer foot on our environment.

     When I think of Lionel Melvin, of course all of these expert, these specialities of his, in working with plants, propagating, growing anything, knowing exactly where to put a plant so it would survive. (Aside) Boy, I would like to be able to do that. I think back to one singular moment with Lionel: And it was during a Wildflower Society meeting and I believe that meeting was held right here in the garden here at Pleasant Garden, right behind his nursery. And back in those early years, and... and Nell Lewis can certainly appreciate this, the... the old folks of the Wildflower Society, back in the '60's and '70's they were a fiery bunch and I... I remember our meetings, there used to be lots of debates. And certainly we need to get a lot of new young people, and maybe some older people in this society now because I... we don't have those exciting debates, and we really need to do that, and hopefully they will recur. But there was this discussion, that was back when there was an effort to pave, to enlarge and pave the road along the upper ridge overlooking Linville Gorge, and a number of you may have been out there. There's this narrow little ridge road, gravelly road, I believe it still is gravelly, that goes out to something called Wiseman's View. And there... in response to the... the possibility that that area was going to be bulldozed enough to put in a much wider road to allow coaches and other vehicles to go halfway along the rim of Linville Gorge, so that everybody could have access and peer into the center of it, and of course that ridge is very narrow and that tiny, one-lane gravelly road now is really right on the edge, and it just falls off. So it was a considerable debate. Some.... And I remember it, because the Wildflower Society was trying to consider what, would they, as a group, write a letter to the state, to oppose any kind of widening or improving or paving the road out into the center of Linville Gorge. And I believe that somebody mentioned that, "Well, I think it's such a wonderful natural area that everybody should be able to go see it." And that really got Lionel riled up, because I remember him standing up and saying, "Well, I think that that area is so wonderful that we need to protect it in its natural state. And there's a little gravelly road there that maybe not everybody can get to. I think it should stay that way. I don't think everybody should have to have access to that. As far as I'm concerned, if I don't get to see it again, I'm happy knowing that it's just preserved." And I think that... that single comment from that one particular meeting is what I take with me all the time whenever Lionel Melvin comes to mind, or if anybody mentions Lionel Melvin. That... that's really is quite frequent.

     So those are the thoughts, my thoughts that I'd like to leave with you about our special friend, a special friend to the whole state, that we have in Lionel Melvin. And again, they are obviously centered on botany and ecology but the people aspects certainly comes out.

(End of Ken Moore's remarks.)
(End of side "A" of the tape.)
 
 

     Site Editor's note: This concludes Ken Moore's remarks. I will stop here for a time, and may add excerpts from Lionel's family and others at a later date. For now, I will let this stand as Ken Moore's tribute to Lionel.
 
 

Biblical references:

Psalm 104: 1
Psalm 104: 10-17
Psalm 104: 24
Psalm 104: 31a

Matthew 6:25-34


 

    ^*Site Editor's note: Dr. Herbert Hechenbleikner, on the faculty in Botany at UNC-C in Charlotte.

^**Site Editor's note: She writes for the Greensboro newspaper.