Jul 14, 2016 3 min read

Dr. Thomas Hart was a well-known figure with a mastery of numerous subjects. A professor in the biology department of Washington & Jefferson College for 28 years, Hart served as a Washington County Community Foundation trustee, First Presbyterian Church elder, Chartiers Creek Watershed Association board member, South Franklin Township past supervisor, Bradford House Association historian and Whiskey Rebellion lecturer.

Friend Jacque Byers will remember Hart, who died Aug. 21, 2015, not for his intellectual prowess, but for his congenial nature.

“What amazed me was that Tom never looked down on anybody. He was always on their level,” said Byers, who is part of the W&J grounds staff. “There was me, just a little maintenance person, and he took me in as family. That’s how he treated people.”

To honor his service to the college, the Dr. Thomas W. Hart Memorial Garden will be dedicated 11 a.m. Saturday behind W&J’s Admission House. The garden features 22 known, registered varieties of daylilies and many unidentified varieties and unregistered hybrids developed and donated by Hart and his wife, Myrna, who shared a passion for the blooms and bred them on their family farm.

The Harts focused on breeding certain types of daylilies, with blue, red or white-toothed margins, many of which are still in development for registration by the American Hemerocallis Society.

Dr. Jason Kilgore, W&J associate professor of biology and speaker at Saturday’s ceremony, said Hart was dedicated to ensuring his varieties bred true before submitting them to the registry.

“(Dr. Hart) was very meticulous,” Kilgore said.

Two recognized varieties were bred by Steve and Sarah Zolock of Zolock Gardens, Belle Vernon, in honor of the Harts. “Dr. Tom” and “Myrna My Love” were donated to the W&J garden by the Zolocks.

The Dr. Thomas W. Hart Memorial Garden, the first named and specialty garden on campus, is a fitting tribute to the professor, Byers said.

“He was a very generous man, very friendly and kind. I called him the gentle giant. He became my Tom Tom and always will be,” she said.

Byers, who drove five truck loads of daylilies from the Hart farm to campus when the couple were downsizing, will continue to care for the blooms. She says she learned everything she knows about the flowers from the Harts, and developed a passion for them herself.

“I call the plants my babies,” Byers said. “I have them all over campus … so people, no matter where they go on campus, they’ll see Tom Tom’s work.”

To learn more about the garden or contribute to the Hart Memorial Garden Fund, contact James B. Miller, director of operations, at jbmiller@washjeff.edu.