Cares, Charles W.

Charles William Cares, Jr. was born on October 29, 1918, in Meadville, Pennsylvania. "He spent his childhood in Cleveland, Ohio, where his love of plants and agriculture was fostered by working on the family farm and in his mother's flower shops."[1] He received his Bachelor of Art degree from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania in 1939, his Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from Michigan State University in 1950, and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Harvard University in 1958. Following his graduation from Allegheny College, he managed a family florist business in Cleveland for two years. He joined the U.S. Navy from 1941 to 1946, and for the next two years he was a partner at a sporting goods store in Meadville, Pennsylvania. "In 1950, he joined the landscape architecture firm of Ralph E. Griswold and Associates in Pittsburgh."[2] He also served as an associate professor of landscape architecture at Cornell University beginning in 1951, in the Department of Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture. His major project there was organizing the "planting and site plans for the freshmen dormitory group at Ithaca College."[3] Much of his earlier work is located in central New York State.

Cares joined the University of Michigan as an associate professor of landscape architecture in 1959. In 1964, he was promoted to professor, and in 1969 was appointed chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. The professional organizations which Cares was a member of included the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Architects, and the Michigan Academy of Arts and Sciences. "He was also the Michigan liaison for the National Chair for Historic Preservation, and a registered landscape architect in the states of New York and Michigan."[4] He also participated in private consulting, by providing landscape architecture services to organizations such as Ithaca College, the Reflection Riding Arboretum, the Sapelo Island Foundation, Wells College, and residential and public developments in Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania.[5] He was named Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture by the Regents of the University of Michigan upon his retirement from active faculty status in July 1986.

Cares was the Director of the Nichols Arboretum from 1968 to 1986, and also designed the landscape for many of its areas. At this time, "conscious efforts were renewed to carefully steward natural areas in the Arboretum," and Cares specifically took part in encouraging the native prairie grasses in Dow Field to be established.[6] In the early 1960s, Cares also assisted in providing the planting plans for what would be designated the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, including the "creation of Willow Pond, under the architects Edward A. Eichstadt and Carl Johnson of Eichstadt and Grissom Associates of Detroit, Michigan."[7]

"Landscape quality of man-dominated environments, rural and urban, had been his research area and he also took an active part in the planning of Ann Arbor Township, including chairing the Ann Arbor Township Planning Board and Ann Arbor Township Zoning Board of Appeals."[8]

Cares died September 22, 2010, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was married to Marian McKee (deceased 2006) for 58 years, and they had four children.

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Notes

1) Michigan Live LLC. "Charles W. 'Chuck' Cares Jr." Last modified September 25, 2010. Accessed October 21, 2010. http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/annarbor/obituary.aspx?n=charles-w-cares-chuck&pid=145608090.

2The University of Michigan Regents Communication. Subject: Report of Faculty Retirement, Action Requested: Adoption of Memoir. July 1986.

3) ibid.

4) The University of Michigan Regents Communication. Subject: Report of Faculty Retirement, Action Requested: Adoption of Memoir. July 1986.

5) The University of Michigan Regents Communication. Action Request: Reappointment of Instructional Retiree, Name: Charles W. Cares, Jr., Title: Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture. October 1986.

6) "A Century of Growing, 1907-2007.": 3.

7) ibid., 6.

8) The University of Michigan Regents Communication. Subject: Report of Faculty Retirement, Action Requested: Adoption of Memoir. July 1986.

From the guide to the Charles W. Cares, Jr. drawings, 1951-2005, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)