Nursery group honors 7 who helped URI, green industry

Close to 200 turned out Saturday, March 15 to honor seven persons with close ties to URI who were instrumental in fostering the green industry in Rhode Island.

The occasion was the first-ever Hall of Fame Dinner conducted by the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association (RINLA) and attending were association members including a large contingent from the College of the Environment and Life Sciences.

Inducted into the Hall of Fame were the late Case Hoogendoorn, the late Lorenzo Kinney, Kenneth Lagerquist, John McGuire, the late Mario Pagliarini, the late Martin Van Hof Sr., and Anthony Williams.

Kinney and McGuire were both professors at URI. Lagerquist is the current executive director of RINLA.

The association has had close ties with URI and was largely responsible for the creation of the URI Botanic Gardens, formerly known as the Learning Landscape.

Besides the association, others that helped sponsor the event were Allen Seed, Babcock & Helliwell, the URI CELS Outreach Center, Central Nurseries, URI Master Gardeners, East Bay Tax & Accounting Services, Hoogendoorn Nurseries, Larry Carville, New England Nursery Association, NYP Corp., Portsmouth Nursery, RI Farm Bureau and Rhode Island Nurseries.