| NABF
Newsletter No. 3
July 2003
Bonsai Pioneers of the Northeast
Region
Welcome to the Third Issue of the NABF Newsletter -- this
one honoring the bonsai pioneers of the Northeast Region.
Most appropriately, the honor roll begins with William Valavanis's
eloquent tribute to Yuji Yoshimura. Yoshimura's influence
was enormous and, through the ever-growing endowment fund
in Yoshimura's name at the National
Bonsai Foundation, will continue to be felt for years
to come through NBF's educational efforts in his name.
Of the other bonsai pioneers honored, I was privileged to
serve with two of them -- Marion Gyllenswan and Fred Ballard
-- on the NBF Board of Directors for many years. They, along
with Ernesta Ballard, Dorothy Young, Constance Derderian,
and, of course, Yuji Yoshimura, met Fred's sine qua non test:
without them, our world of bonsai as we know it today would
not exist. Thus, the NABF Newsletter, as its focus moves from
one region of North America to another, continues to pay tribute
to those bonsai leaders who developed the art of bonsai in
North America.
You will be very pleased with the bonsai photographs in the
Northeast Region Gallery. Not
only does the Gallery show a wide range of styles and species,
but also it includes a few show stoppers that are so eerily
beautiful that their images may send chills up your spine!
This issue also updates you (i) on a wonderful story, first
reported in the NBF
Bulletin and on the NBF website about the Yamaki Pine
-- which survived the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and is the
oldest bonsai in the Japanese Collection at the National Bonsai
& Penjing Museum in Washington, D.C., and (ii) on the
plans for the WBFF 5th World Bonsai Convention to be held
in Washington, D.C. in 2005.
I am very grateful to our Northeast Regional Editor, William
Valavanis, and Northeast Assistant Regional Editor, Jerry
Stowell, for their efforts in putting this issue together.
I also greatly appreciate the assistance they received from
Colin Lewis. The next issue of the NABF Newsletter will focus
on the North-Central Region, and Jack Douhitt and Scott Clark
are the Regional Editor and Assistant Editor for that issue.
It is targeted for release on October 1, 2003.
Felix Laughlin
NABF President
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