Dr. Sally Boyson
February 24, 1952 - October 2, 2018
Sally Jean Boyson, M.D., of Denver, Colorado, passed away on October 2, 2018. Sally was educated at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. She was an assistant professor of neurology and pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania and later at the University of Colorado, and volunteered teaching at the VA Hospital for many years. Sally was a Colorado Master Gardener and volunteered at the Denver Botanic Gardens. She was editor of the newsletter, Saximontana, of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society (NARGS) for 16 years; she was a member of NARGS for 15 years. Her beautiful garden, which was her pride and joy, was featured in both the Denver newspapers. Sally is survived by her sister, Elizabeth Norman; a brother, John Boyson; and numerous nieces and nephews. Per her wishes, contributions may be made to the Denver Botanic Gardens or the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
Dr. Clifford E. Desch, Jr.
NARGS member Clifford E. Desch, Jr., of Conway, Massachusetts, died on September 20, 2018. He was a member of the Berkshire Chapter of NARGS and twice its chapter chair.
Cliff gardened in Conway since 1977. The garden contained a stream, rock outcrops, and ledges and natural vegetation of mixed deciduous hardwoods and conifers. The understory included thickets of mountain laurel, pink lady slippers and carpets of partridgeberry. Other garden features include a large, mature rock garden with (not so) dwarf conifers, a sand bed, a moss garden, a bog garden, a small water garden, and planters and containers. A 25 x 12.5 foot cool greenhouse housed a large collection of cacti and succulents, and modest accumulations of asarum species, vireya rhododendrons, orchids, carnivorous plants, cycads, and assorted others. The greenhouse was ringed on the outside with raised alpine beds.
Cliff was a member of the North American Rock Garden Society since 1974. He was also a member of the Cactus & Succulent Society of America, the Succulent Society of South Africa, the Magnolia Society International, the Rhododendron Species Foundation and a life member of the American Rhododendron Society. Cliff was a professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut (Hartford campus) and conducted research on morphology and taxonomy of parasitic hair follicle mites of mammals in the Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.