In Memory of Walter Frank Mayr

To the editor:

When I was told of the passing of Walt Mayr on Aug. 10 I felt a profound sadness for this loss, but at the same time I felt thankful to have had the opportunity to know him.

I first met Walt Mayr when I visited my brother, John, in Alaska in the early 1980s. John was living in Walt’s old homestead log cabin that had been built on the property in the 1950s and soon John would purchase some property from Walt to build his own home where he would live for nearly 10 years, just north of the greenhouses through the woods.

Walt Mayr was a kind and gentle soul and he always made you feel right at home. The son of a cabinetmaker and the oldest of eight children, he came to Alaska from the Midwest in 1942 when he accepted a job in Kodiak. Later he got a job in the Healy coal mines and eventually became a master mechanic at the Jonesville Mine near Sutton. Walt and Florence Mayr operated their greenhouses on the Glenn Highway for nearly 30 years and Walt was especially known for his beautiful Trollius plants that were filled with brightly colored blooms. He had developed a special technique for them and they flourished in the Alaska climate. These Trollius and hundreds of other lovely perennials were sold throughout the Mat-Su as well as to greenhouses in Anchorage. Walt and Florence were married for 38 years when he lost her to cancer in 1982 and after Walt donated many of his Trollius plants as a tribute to Florence to the Providence Hospital, they purchased nearly 900 more and they were planted on each side of the driveway leading to the hospital. Walt is survived by his second wife Elsie and her children. Walt and Elsie were married in 1988.

I worked with Walt one summer in the greenhouses. He was in his 70s at the time, and I in my 30s could barely keep up with him. We began the day by taking the Kubota tractor to the river bottom to fill the little trailer with soil. This small trailer would fill fast I thought and we would be finished, but boy was I wrong. Once the soil was level with the trailer sides I thought that we were done and that was the first time Walt told me, “There is no such thing as a half a load.”

So we shoveled and shoveled until we had what resembled a pyramid in that little trailer and I hung on to that dirt pile as we slowly crawled back to the greenhouses. We made dozens of trips to collect soil that summer and he never showed any signs of tiring. Walt’s work ethic was impeccable and he was an inspiration. Once back at the greenhouses Walt did everything. The soil was sifted and cleaned, then sterilized, seeds were saved and planted, flowers and plants were cultivated and Walt gave each one his special gift. Walt was a wealth of knowledge and wisdom and was always coming up with new ideas for propagating plants and creating a wonderland of floral beauty.

From the beginning of the greenhouse operation in the 1950s, Walt Mayr shared his knowledge with many and taught those of us who were novices to the art of gardening, how to make our world a little more beautiful. It was an honor and a privilege to have known Walt Mayr and he will be surely be missed by me, my brother John and all those many others whose lives he touched.

Respectfully,

Penny Jane Fann

Amarillo, Texas