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Over the Director there was the governing committee headed for 
more than ten years by Mr. Alfred T. White, then for a shorter 
term by Mr. Frank Bailey, and for the last 18 years by Miss Hilda 
L.oines who is presiding at this meeting today. He had the help 
of this committee, the help of the trustees of the Institute, the help 
of the Woman’s Auxiliary. He had the devotion of the mem- 
bers of the staff and of all the workers of the Garden. 
T should like to quote from what Dr. Wm. J. Robbins of the New 
York Botanical Garden wrote of him: “Few men have been able to 
combine, as Dr. Gager did, horticulture and botany, education and 
research, the apphed and the scientific, civic interests and pro- 
fessional duties. A man of the highest ideals, Dr. Gager did not 
hesitate to oppose attitudes, ideas or trends which he considered 
unwise or ill considered or to correct errors in fact or statement 
in the helds with which he was familiar. Yet no worthy project re- 
lated to his fields of interest failed to receive quick and generous 
support. His career illustrates how much can be done by a man 

of ability who devotes himself consistently and conscientiously to 
a subject he considers worthy of his utmost effort.” 
I have tried to tell you some of the things I have known about 
Dr. Gager. When I first came here it was as a stranger for tech- 
nical horticultural help, but as I continued to come here par- 
ticularly in the later years, | came to look upon him as a friend 
with whom I could talk over many personal problems, and I often 
came very much more for such personal advice than for the direct 
business of the garden. Generous, kindly, humorous and tolerant 
he was a friend [ shall remember as long as I 
— 
ive. It seems to me 
that the quotation, fron) Wordsworth, which he had inscribed over 
the entrance to the Children’s Garden House, is peculiarly fitting 
to Dr. Gager: 
“THe is happiest who hath power 
To gather wisdom from a flower.” 
