QBARS - v25n1 Bronze Medal Presented to Britt Smith

Bronze Medal Presented to Britt Smith
Mrs. Robert L. Badger, Tacoma Wash.

The May meeting of the Tacoma Chapter seemed to be Britt Smith night as the evening progressed. The annual elections found the unanimous election of Britt as the new President of the Tacoma Chapter. Just back from a very eventful trip around the world with his wife, Jean, in which their visit to Sikkim was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip, Britt also presented the program, which were slides of Darjeeling, India, Gangtok, Sikkim: the country surrounding them as well as the people they saw there. The highlight for the meeting however, came with the presentation of the Bronze Medal to Britt. The Citation read as follows:

• To Britt M. Smith is awarded the Bronze Medal of The American Rhododendron Society for the unusual and extraordinary contribution to the furtherance of the knowledge of the Genus Rhododendron.
• A somewhat casual affair with the species R. occidentale in its native habitat in Oregon in the early 1960's, blossomed forth to a truly romantic interlude with these enchanting and beautiful plants in their Oregon and California homes just a few short years later.
• As the temptress has yielded her morphological. ecological and visual secrets to her lovers, Britt and his partner, Dr. Frank Mossman, have freely shared these secrets with science and rhododendron lovers around the world.
• The efforts of Britt Smith thus serve as the stimulus for multitudes of others who pursue knowledge of the Genus Rhododendron.
• Presented this 13th day of Jay 1970, by the Tacoma Chapter of The American Rhododendron Society.