Garden Unites Haber’s Passion for Arcadia, Flowers
Lois Arnold Haber ’71 is passionate about gardens, joyful when the peonies bloom in the spring and sorrowful when an old tree reaches its end. It’s a passion she shares with her husband, Michael, as they oversee and select their own flowers and trees at their home, and one that she is excited to share with the Arcadia community.
When President Jerry Greiner announced that the University was planning a garden in Haber’s honor on the eve of her last meeting as Chair of the Board of Trustees, she glanced at her husband and smiled. For all the vision and creativity that she brought to the campus during her leadership, Arcadia was going to share in another of her passions.
“We love peonies, hydrangeas, gardenias, butterfly bushes, tulips, dahlias, irises! We love trees—weeping Norwegian spruce, Kousa dogwood, Katsura, old weeping beech. I’ve never built a garage because I was afraid to kill the roots of a gigantic and magnificent beech,” she says.
In October, she and President Greiner will walk the campus, looking not just at the progress made during her 13 years as a Trustee, but also for just the right spot for the garden in her and her husband, Michael’s, honor.
A beautiful gift that surprises and delights each spring and brings perennial color to greet students each fall has struck a chord. Fellow trustees, faculty, staff and alumni have joined the effort to help fund the garden, and more than $20,000 has been raised.
“Her proactive leadership style has embraced faculty, staff, students, alumni and other friends to seek out their views, listen, and create programs that have touched nearly every corner of this University,” says Greiner, “so it’s no surprise that people are embracing what she has done for Arcadia with this garden project.” To celebrate the Haber Garden, the names of contributors to this special tribute will be listed in a spring publication.
For more information on how to make a contribution to the garden in honor of Lois and Michael Haber, contact Nick Costa, Vice President for University Advancement, at 215-572-2781 or costan@arcadia.edu.
