Distinguished Service Medal
, jim morris
2018 Distinguished
Service Medals
STORY BY JIM MORRIS, HONORARY AWARDS CHAIRMAN, MISSOURI | photos provided by recipients
At the fall 2018 AIS Board meeting the
American Iris Society approved the AIS Gold Medal
for Robert (Bob) Pries of Region 4 (see separate
article) and three AIS Distinguished Service Medals
for Gary White, Region 21, Betsy Higgins, Region 4,
and Terry Laurin, Region 2.
Gary White, Region 21,
Lincoln, NE
As immediate past AIS
President, Gary hardly
needs introduction to
our membership. This
former West Virginian
was raised on a farm and
then pursued his BS and
MS degrees in Botany
from Fairmont State College and West Virginia
University, and put himself through college working
part-time in hospitals and later became a hospital
pharmacist as a career. He and wife Linda joined
AIS in 1994 and he has performed stellar duty in
national, regional and local iris groups. This includes
time as president of the Lincoln Iris Society, RVP of
Region 21, president of the Historic Iris Preservation
Society, secretary/treasurer of the AIS Foundation
and president of AIS. Much more is detailed in his
first AIS president’s message in the winter 2016 issue
of IRISES. His devotion to irises, and iris people was
well-noted in his calm and steady performance in his
presidency. He is congratulated on a job well done.
Betsy Higgins, Region 4,
Mills River, NC
Normally we don’t
mention age in these
DSM accolades, but in
Betsy’s case we simply
must make an exception.
Betsy, 94, was born at
Muttontown, NY on Long
Island’s “gold coast” in
1924 and lived there for 67 years. She was Registrar
for the Golden Jubilee Anniversary (50th) AIS
Convention in 1970! Fifty years later, she hopes to
attend AIS’s 100th celebration in 2020 in Newark/
NYC.
She became interested in irises in the 1960s
and joined the Long Island-based Three Islands Iris
Society (Long Island, Staten Island and Manhattan)
in Region 2. A few years later, Three Islands was
disbanded, mainly because the two stalwart
founders, Harry Kuesel and Bill Peck were no longer
living in the area.
She drifted out of irises for a time until she moved
to Hendersonville, NC, Region 4, in 1991. She had
Gary White
Betsy Higgins
46 AIS Bulletin Winter 2019