Cultivating Minds

Cultivating Minds

The Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum stands as a living memorial and a flourishing classroom

BY MARIA STALFORD
Special to the Rice News

Photo by Tommy LaVergne

Planting the seeds for the Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum during a 1999 tree-planting ceremony are, from left, Jerald Mize, who helped raise the initial funds for the arboretum and garden; D. Kent Anderson, member of the Rice Board of Trustees; Mike and Patsy Anderson, son-in-law and daughter of Lynn Lowrey (no relation to D. Kent Anderson); and Charles Tapley ’55, landscape architect.

Rice University is already distinguished for having one of the country’s most beautiful university campuses. Thanks to the Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum, the campus is also set to become one of the region’s most ecologically rich. Only the third arboretum in Texas to be established on a university campus, the Lowrey Arboretum will serve as a resource for teaching and research as well as make the campus even more congenial.

The idea for the Lowrey Arboretum was born when a group led by Lynn Lowrey’s daughter Patsy Anderson and her husband, Mike, along with Lowrey’s friend Charles Tapley ’55, formed a committee to brainstorm about possible tributes to Lowrey (1917