Dr. Richard H. Munson, Conservatory Manager & Instructor

Richard H. “Dick” Munson began his service as Manager of The Conservatory at Miami University Hamilton in September 2004.  He also teaches in the Botany Department.  Prior to that he served as Director of Landscape Services, University of Missouri - Columbia, and Director of the University of Missouri Botanic Garden, for three years, Executive Director of The Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio, for five years and for eleven years as Director of The Botanic Garden of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, before that.  He also served on the faculties of The Agricultural Technical Institute, Wooster, Ohio, and Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.

Dick received his undergraduate degree in landscape horticulture from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, in 1971.  He earned his master of science degree and doctorate in ornamental horticulture from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in 1973 and 1981, respectively. 

While an undergraduate Dick earned varsity letters on Ohio State’s soccer and lacrosse teams, and received his commission in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.  He retired from the U. S. Army Reserve in 1999 as a Lieutenant Colonel. 

In 1998 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University.  In 2005 he was named a Fellow of the International Plant Propagators’ Society, Eastern Region.  His academic specialties and research interests are in plant propagation and the nomenclature of cultivated plants.  He is an avid fisherman, fly-tier, birdwatcher, and woodworker, as well as a part-time nurseryman.

Dick was born in Toledo, Ohio, but grew up in New Carlisle, Ohio.  He is a graduate of Tecumseh High School.