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Remembering Judy Zuk: Friends talk of her grace, wit, and warm personality
by Denise Cowie - posted 9/11/2007
The president emeritus of Brooklyn Botanic Garden -- and former director of Scott -- died this month at age 55. She made a lasting impression here.
“This is a tradition we inherited from Judy,” Scott Arboretum Director Claire Sawyers said last Thursday evening as she prepared to camp out amid a forest of trees, shrubs and perennials destined to be sold during the Scott Associates’ Biennial Plant Sale at Swarthmore College over the weekend.
But guard duty among the plants at the arboretum’s biggest fundraiser was only one recollection among many as Sawyers talked about Judith Zuk – her friend, mentor, and predecessor at Scott Arboretum – who died on Sept. 1 after a five-year battle with breast cancer. She was 55. At the time of her death, Ms. Zuk (pictured at right) was President Emeritus of Brooklyn Botanic Garden, having retired in 2005 for health reasons, after 15 years as the New York garden’s fifth President.
During her tenure, she helped raise millions of dollars to renovate many of the featured gardens, guided the expansion of its horticultural, scientific, and educational programs, oversaw development of a master plan, aligned the garden with plant conservation groups worldwide, and, in conjunction with Prospect Park and the New York City Education Department, helped start a new high school devoted to environmental topics. Along the way, she received almost every major award in American horticulture. She also served as president of the American Public Gardens Association, and was on the board of Botanical Gardens Conservation International.
She had many friends here
“She had the strengths you would need to lead a major public garden,” Sawyers said. “She had the plantsmanship, the reputation, and the respect of the garden world, the horticultural and the botanical worlds, and she was able to get people behind her because she had that magnetic personality.
“She was a fun person,” Sawyers added, “witty, quick, graceful and warm. Just a wonderful person to be around.”
Judy Zuk was director of Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College until 1990, when she left to go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. And although she devoted enormous energy, talent and enthusiasm to that nearly century-old institution, she still found time to maintain her attachment to the Philadelphia horticultural scene and her many friends in this region.
“She came down to Philadelphia fairly often,” said R. William Thomas, Executive Director of Chanticleer pleasure garden in Wayne and a close friend of Ms. Zuk’s for several decades. “She almost always came for the [Philadelphia] flower show, and for a long time she was on the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Gold Medal Committee. She loved this area; she lived here for a long time.”
Maintaining ties to Scott Arboretum
For much of that time she worked at Scott, initially as Education Coordinator for several years, and later as Director for another seven.
“She retained her membership here, she came back and lectured for us, and she received the Scott Medal [in 1998], so the ties to Judy are pretty strong,” said Sawyers, who has known Ms. Zuk since 1977, and was appointed Director of Scott after Ms. Zuk left.
Some connections extend even farther, harkening back to Ms. Zuk’s student days.
After graduating summa cum laude from Rutgers University with a degree in botany in 1973, Judy Zuk worked at Rutgers on the landscape crew, recalled Paul Meyer, Director of Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania.
“She used to joke that she spent half her time clipping hedges and picking up garbage, but the passion for horticulture was there … she was brilliant academically,” he said. “I remember stories of her going to her grandmother’s garden [when she was a child], and she sort of got bitten by the bug there.”
‘A golden moment’
She was selected for the Longwood Graduate Program the following year – a highly competitive process – and began studying for her Master’s in Public Garden Administration. It was during that time she met some of the people who would become lifelong friends.
Her graduate class included Meyer and Katy Moss Warner, now President Emeritus of the American Horticultural Society. At the same time, Bill Thomas, now at Chanticleer, and Kris Jarantoski, now director of the Chicago Botanic Garden, were Longwood interns.
“That was a golden moment to be there,” said Thomas, describing his compatriots as “clearly enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and most importantly, fun.”
“Judy was always very competent and serious about what she did, but she always made sure that it was fun,” Thomas said, adding that she was an inspiration to him both personally and professionally. “That charm and love of life invaded everything she did, including work, and it was part of why she was so successful professionally – because she would listen to all sides, and everyone wanted to please her.”
Legendary people skills
Her people skills, her friends agree, were legendary.
“It’s hard to remember a time when I’ve seen Judy angry at someone,” said Meyer. “She could be annoyed, and she had a quick wit that could make the point, but in a very gentle way – she could whip people into shape without their feeling they had been done wrong.”
Sawyers tells the story of when she was about to join Scott. She had graduated from the Longwood Graduate Program herself, and subsequently worked at the Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware.
“We were good friends, and when Judy went to Brooklyn, I applied here,” she recalled. “And one of the things that was personally endearing was her reaction when people started saying to me ‘Oh, you have very big shoes to fill!’ Judy told them, ‘Well, yes – I wear a size 8 or 9,’ or whatever it was. And that was as much as she made of it. She is one of those women who has been a mentor and an example, but she did it in such a graceful and witty way. She was always supportive and always positive.”
“You’ll hear ‘She was one of my best friends’ from hundreds of people,” Thomas added, “and she had the ability to make each one of us feel very special.”
She wanted to lead a public garden
Judy Zuk was among the early wave of women seeking leadership roles in public horticulture. In the ’70s, women in the field frequently were steered into positions as educators. In 1977, after she spent a year in England on a prestigious Garden Club of America Fellowship, Ms. Zuk’s first job at Scott was as Education Coordinator.
“I remember her saying to me, ‘I do plan to lead a garden. I don’t want to be pushed into education just because I’m a woman. I love education, but I feel I can do other things, too’,” Thomas said. “She felt that a garden could really have an impact in an urban environment.”
Ms. Zuk left Scott to pursue a PhD at Cornell, but when the director’s position at Scott became vacant, the arboretum recruited her to come back to Swarthmore to take on that role.
At Cornell, she met and later married Christopher Woods, a horticulturist from England. In Pennsylvania, Woods worked at Chanticleer in Wayne, where the couple lived for six years. The marriage ended in divorce, but the two remained friends.
An ill-fated 50th birthday
Ms. Zuk, who loved to have a good time, planned a big party for the weekend following her 50th birthday – which was on September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks that obliterated those plans had a profound affect on Ms. Zuk, as they did on most Americans. The party was rescheduled for December.
The following month – January 2002 – she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and began the long battle that ended with her death this month.
“She expressed and showed no fear, and said she was not afraid of death,” said Sawyers. “In many ways she took it as a learning experience, and that is probably one of the reasons she was able to live with it as long as she did.”
She was thankful for the treatment at Sloan Kettering, Thomas said, and although she did everything she could to fight her illness, she never cursed her fate.
Fulfilling a lifelong dream
“One of the nurses said she was just so amazed at how peaceful Judy was, and Judy said she felt she had had the best care in the world, and if they couldn’t save her, it wasn’t meant to be,” he said. “She said during her illness, ‘It is what it is’.”
Ms. Zuk, with her gregarious nature, loved to travel, and last year she fulfilled a lifelong dream.
“I think of 2006 as being a bonus year for her – I didn’t think she would live to see it,” Thomas said. “But in December of 2006, she went to the Galapagos with her nephew, Ian White, and that was an absolute trip of a lifetime for both of them.”
“She died young, but I like to think it’s not how long we live but how well we live, and Judy really lived well and had a very full life,” said Meyer. “Among a lot of extraordinary people, she was just a gem.”
BBG plans celebration of Judith Zuk's life
Judy Zuk is survived by her sister, Pat Campbell of China Grove, N.C., and her nephew, Ian White.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is planning a celebration of her life to be held on Sunday, September 23, at the Botanic Garden. For more information, visit the garden’s web site at www.bbg.org.
Photo of Judith Zuk at top right is provided by The Lindner Studio, courtesy Brooklyn Botanic Garden.