October 27 - Meeting
Speaker will be: Bob Hamilton
Presenting: Orchidphilia, a 50-year Orchid Adventure,presenting a synopsis of the orchid past, the present, and future possibilities.

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Bob was born and raised in Berkeley, CA, as were his parents. His career spanned 51 years at the University of California at Berkeley, serving as Principal Laboratory Glassblower for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in their Microwave Tube Laboratory, a facility for  the research of electron tubes, lasers, and optics.

 

Following a 1985 change in research priorities, he became the development engineer for a shared semiconductor research laboratory, the Microlab. In 2006, he became Principal Development  Engineer for the Marvell Nanofabrication Facility, https://nanolab.berkeley.edu/, a shared research lab serving about 400 researchers. He retired in 2017 after 51 years of service.

 

 

Bob's interest in orchids began in 1976 after he and his partner, John Leathers, purchased
the  Berkeley home of Joe McDonald, a popular country singer and songwriter.
The house had a solarium, which began their shared interest in orchids.

 

Given the cool climate of the San Francisco – Bay Area, John and Bob began specializing
in cool-growing, high-elevation Andean orchids. They grow in two
greenhouses: a 15’ x 25’ glass house in the backyard of our Berkeley Home,
acquired in 1979, and a 3,400-square-foot greenhouse in Pacifica, CA.
 

 

In 2015, at the AOS Spring Members Meeting held in Portland, Bob was presented the
President’s Award for my work on plant chromosome doubling. At this same meeting,
John Leathers, along with their longtime friend and colleague Theresa Hill, received an
AOS Hybridizers Award for their inspired breeding programs. Bob and John grow from seed to
flowering plant, doing their own lab work. They have no commercial interest in orchid sales.

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