Juneau Chapter History

The Juneau Chapter of the APS was founded by Mr. John O'Brien, who recently passed on. The Chapter has been in contact with his wife to collect photo's of John and as much information as we can. Lee Sandor, another long time Juneau member, has agreed to write both a tribute to John, which follows:

A Tribute To John O'Brien

I wish to pay tribute to John O'Brien for his sincere interest in growing primula and the sharing of his knowledge and for helping to form a Chapter of the American Primrose Society in Juneau, Alaska.

In 1966 John's wife, Marilyn, went to a plant sale and came home with two primula plants and asked John to plant them. Prior to this time he was strictly a vegetable grower, but the plants intrigued him and he began to study and learn all he could about the genus. John raised many plants from seed and so had a variety. After he retired from the Alaska Marine Highway system, he spent his summers in the Lake Tagish area of the Yukon, Before going to his summer cabin he would put his primula plants up for sale.

The members of the Juneau Garden Club had long been avid growers of primula and invited John to present a program in 1991 and again had him give another program in 1994. This program sparked so much interest it was decided to form a group just to study, learn proper identification and share knowledge. The group met informally and with money earned from plant sales brought well known growers to be our guest speakers here in Juneau.

John presented programs in Ketchikan, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Haines and Skagway. He also attended the Tacoma shows and brought back slides for all to enjoy.

He was a remarkable man who gave generously of his love of primroses

Lee Sandor
Juneau, Alaska

Caroline Jensen was another very influential early member who will be featured on this page. No doubt others who have made major contributions to our Chapter will be featured as well. We will be sure to let everyone know when these tasks gets done here through the Chapter newsletter. Thank You for your interest!!