Paul W. Meyer, celebrated former executive director of the Morris Arboretum & Gardens, has died at 71

Paul W. Meyer, 71, of Philadelphia, celebrated former F. Otto Haas executive director of the Morris Arboretum & Gardens, lifelong gardener, world traveler, and prolific photographer, died Tuesday, Oct. 10, of complications from pancreatic cancer at his home in Chestnut Hill.

Mr. Meyer grew up in his grandparents’ gardens and orchards in rural Cincinnati, and earned a master’s degree in public horticulture at the University of Delaware. He joined the staff at the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum in 1976 as curator and director of horticulture, and expected to stay a year or two before moving on to a larger arboretum.

He never left. Over the next 43 years, 28 as executive director, Mr. Meyer helped transform Morris from a sleepy city garden in Chestnut Hill into a worldwide sensation that attracted nearly 200,000 annual visitors. He became executive director in 1991, retired reluctantly in 2019, and in between championed horticultural research and education, bolstered the staff, invigorated donors, and redesigned many of Morris’ 170 acres into a natural wonderland.

His landscapes are diverse, meticulously tended, and often feature refurbished historic fountains and iconic buildings. He threaded a model train track through one garden and added a popular canopy walk past another.

He was a master collaborator and mentor to many. Former colleague Rick Lewandowski said Mr. Meyer made Morris into a “busy, engaged, family-friendly, exquisitely beautiful, and premier scientific organization.” Bill Cullina, current executive director, said in a tribute: “Paul’s love and commitment to the Morris is felt in every acre.”

To enhance the Morris experience, Mr. Meyer traveled to the mountains and fields of China, Korea, Taiwan, Armenia, and elsewhere on a dozen seed- and plant-collecting expeditions. He introduced rare and exotic specimens to the Morris gardens and Philadelphia landscape at large, and kept detailed archives so others could share and build on his assemblage.

He was especially passionate about public horticulture and searched for plants and trees that could survive in the concrete jungle. “Plants in the city usually come as an afterthought,” he told The Inquirer in 1986.

He expanded the endowment programs at Morris to include nine paid yearlong internships, and he and his wife, Debbie Rodgers, personally created the Paul Meyer and Debra L. Rodgers Study Travel Endowment, and the Paul Meyer and Debra L. Rodgers Historic Preservation Endowment Fund.

A cofounder of the North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium, Mr. Meyer coordinated programs and expeditions with the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, Morton Arboretum near Chicago, and other organizations. In 2022, he won a Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society in Great Britain for “outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture.”

He was an avid photographer and, fascinated by the connections he saw between people and plants, exhibited many of the more than 100,000 images he made on his expeditions. He wrote field guides, lectured widely about his travels, and was profiled often in The Inquirer and other publications.

He worked earlier at arboretums in England and Germany, and tirelessly built on what William Klein, his predecessor at Morris, had started. “I played a role, but it’s a team of people,” Mr. Meyer told The Inquirer. “We stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Paul William Meyer was born Aug. 30, 1952, in Cincinnati. His mother died when he was young, and he spent several years living with his grandparents in the country. He was a good student, an Eagle scout, and close to his brother Gary.

He entered Ohio State University as an engineering student, but after spending time in the university garden, switched to landscape horticulture and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1973. He graduated from Delaware’s Longwood Graduate Program in Public Horticulture in 1976 and picked up a postgraduate diploma in biology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1987.

He met Debbie Rodgers through friends in 1981. She thought he was “engaging,” and they married in 1990, and lived at Morris and later in another house in Chestnut Hill.

Mr. Meyer liked to hike, bike, swim, and scuba dive when he wasn’t gardening. He served on local boards and committees for many groups in the area, and was active with the Friends of Pastorius Park after he retired.

Longtime friend Jim Scherrer called Mr. Meyer a “renaissance man.” Colleague Janet Haas said he was “thoughtful, wise, generous, and kind.”

Mr. Meyer’s wife said: “He was optimistic, determined, gentle, and loving. He had a real impact on people.”

In addition to his wife and brother, Mr. Meyer is survived by other relatives.

A private service is to be held Wednesday, Oct. 18. A public celebration of his life is to be held later.

Donations in his name may be made to the Morris Arboretum Paul W. Meyer and Debra L. Rodgers Study Travel Endowment, 100 E. Northwestern Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19118; and the Friends of Pastorius Park, Box 27158, Market Square Station, Philadelphia, Pa. 19118.