Gardner, M. E. (Monroe Evans), 1895-1975.

Alumnus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and World War I veteran. Gardner was the head of the Horticulture Department (1931-1956); organizer of the North Carolina Association of Nurserymen (1936), North Carolina Commercial Flower Growers (1947), and the North Carolina Apple Growers' Association (1954); initiator of the movement that resulted in the first direct appropriation for agricultural research ever made by the General Assembly; writer of garden columns. North Carolina State University dedicated the M.E. Gardner Arboretum in his honor in 1973.

North Carolina State University Professor Emeritus of Horticultural Science, Monroe Evans Gardner was born on October 3, 1895, in Blacksburg, Virginia . He was educated at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and served in the Army Air Corps during WW I. He held positions with the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and Clemson College before joining the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station in 1927. In 1933, he was appointed head of the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University where he remained until 1956 when he stepped down to pursue teaching and research. Gardner retired in 1965 but remained deeply involved in agricultural activities.

M. E. Gardner was active in North Carolina's agricultural industry for nearly 50 years. He initiated the movement that resulted in the first appropriation for agricultural research ever made by the North Carolina State Assembly. He was responsible for the organization of the N.C. Association of Nurserymen, the N.C. Commercial Flower Growers and the N.C. Apple Growers' Association . In addition, he had notable achievements in the development of modern disease and pest resistant plants, and wrote a garden column, Garden Time that was published in over 150 North Carolina newspapers. Gardner was named a Fellow by the American Horticultural Society in 1967 and the M. E. Gardner Arboretum was dedicated on the N.C. State campus in his honor in 1973. The arboretum was designed as a place of beauty and as a functional teaching and research facility. In addition, Gardner was active in civic affairs, taking part in the administration of the Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh and serving as chairman of the YMCA board of directors for fifteen years.

Extolled as a horticultural pioneer and accomplished as an educator, scientist and administrator, students remained Gardner's absorbing interest. He once said, "There is nothing glamorous about teaching as far as professional recognition is concerned, but there are deep and lasting satisfactions." M. E. Gardner died in January of 1975 at the age of seventy-nine.