Mitchell Leichhardt has cultivated a love of plants for almost 70 years, and that interest has grown into a $1 million endowed professorship at Western Kentucky University.
The $1 million Leichhardt Endowed Professorship in Horticulture will be established through a $500,000 anonymous private gift to the university, which will be matched by the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Regional University Excellence Trust Fund - money the state sets aside to match donor gifts, said Tom Hiles, vice president for institutional advancement at WKU.
The professorship gives the horticulture program funds to supplement a professor’s annual salary, research, travel and other expenses. Martin Stone, the director of WKU’s horticulture program, will be the first Leichhardt professor.
“The wonderful thing about professorships is they will be here 100, 200 years from now,” Hiles said. “We see it really strengthening and raising the profile of the horticulture program for years to come.”
The donor requested the professorship be named for Leichhardt, who “has played a very important role in the university’s horticulture program,” Hiles said.
Leichhardt, 85, current owner of Landscape Nursery Supply LLC, got a taste of horticulture at the age of 16 when he got a part-time job at Deemer Floral Co.
“They produced all of their own flowers,” he said. “And that’s what kindled my interest. I like to grow plants, and plants just always fascinated me.”
Leichhardt went on to receive a bachelor’s degree from WKU, where he worked on landscaping around the dormitories. Leichhardt later opened his own landscape business.
“I think it adds a lot to the beauty of the city and the pride and beauty of our park system,” he said. “And the plants help clean the atmosphere.”
One of his favorite plants is the Foster Holly - a useful plant that grows anywhere, has beautiful foliage and red berries, and is easy to transplant, he said.
“And that plant was discovered in my lifetime,” he said.
Leichhardt has witnessed many changes in horticulture over the years. One of the main changes is plant cultivation.
“When we first started, we cultivated with mules,” he said, “then we graduated to tractors, and now we use herbicide to keep down the weeds.”
A switch in transportation also has affected horticulture. When mules were still used to plow the fields, it was more difficult to transport plants across the country. Now, plants can be shipped and quickly received on a weekly basis.
Also, many horticulturists have switched from growing plants in fields to containers.
“If you have containers, it’s easier to have more uniform plant material, and you can transplant plants all through the year,” he said. “Before that, (during) field production, you had to do it seasonally.”
As the growing season approaches and the recession continues, Leichhardt expects he and other horticulturists will have to cut back spending, but “during the depression there were still a lot of flowers and plants produced.”
But in the midst of wintery weather and poor economic conditions comes a $1 million investment in local horticulture, which is essential to enhancing the quality of WKU’s horticulture program and attracting top students, he said.
Leichhardt would tell prospective horticulture students that “it’s very rewarding because you get to work outside a lot, and you work with enhancing the beauty of the landscape.”