New AIS Board Members
and Second Vice President
STORY BY JIM MORRIS, MISSOURI | photos provided by board members
At the fall board meeting in November 2018
in Portland, OR, the AIS board of directors approved
one new officer: Bonnie Nichols, second vicepresident,
Region 17; and four new directors: Phyllis
Wilburn, Region 14; Wayne Messer, Region 21; Neil
Houghton, Region 2; and, Janis Shackelford, Region 15.
Bonnie Nichols,
Dallas, TX, Region 17
Bonnie is well known
in the iris community.
She returns to the AIS
board as second vice
president. She was
AIS treasurer 1995–
1998. She is a 30-plusyear
member of the
Iris Society of Dallas
and winner of their
Distinguished Service
Bonnie Nichols
Medal along with the DSM from Region 17 for whom
she served as RVP. She also is a member of four
other local Texas iris groups: Ft.Worth Iris Society,
Lone Star Iris Society, Waco Iris Society, and the
Johnson County Iris Society. She has chaired three
AIS national conventions, in 2000, 2013 and 2014,
as well as two mini-conventions for the Society for
Louisiana Irises in 2013 and 2017. Bonnie organized
the Novelty Iris Society to become a section of AIS
and serves as current president. She and husband
Hooker Nichols own and operate Hillcrest Iris &
Daylily Gardens where they just completed moving
all stock to a new garden location in the Dallas area
in 2018.
Neil Houghton,
Mendon, NY, Region 2
Neil joins the AIS
board as a director
after first serving as
AIS image coordinator
and a writer of
photography tips for
the AIS Bulletin. He
is a graduate of the
State University of
New York (SUNY)
at Geneseo, half an
Neil Houghton
hour south of the Rochester area, where he and his
husband, Kyle Crawford, live. He was an elementary
teacher for 35 years in Penfield, NY, also near
Rochester. It wasn’t until he bought a house on a
half-acre lot that he started to build a garden. He
had always loved irises and could grow a few when
he lived in a condo. But after retiring in 2008 he
seriously started working in the garden and it has
expanded to around 700 varieties today. He went to
his first AIS convention in 2015 at Portland, OR.
Neil has been a member of the Greater Rochester
Iris Society for about eight years now, currently
serving as vice president. He was membership
chairman for Region 2 and was instrumental in
making arrangements for the regional meeting in
2017. He is doing so again for the fall 2019 meeting.
Starting about 30 years ago he started to become
active with “Integrity,” the LGBT advocacy group in
the Episcopal Church. As a vice president, he was
there when they passed resolutions at the national
level supporting inclusion and celebration of LGBT
membership.
Neil hopes to bring the passion he has for
32 AIS Bulletin Winter 2019