First published in the Oct. 14 print issue of the San Marino Tribune.
When Nicole Cavender took over for Jim Folsom at the Huntington Library as its director of botanical gardens, she knew she had replaced a local legend. Last week, she traveled down the hill to tell the Rotary Club of San Marino all about it.
Folsom retired in December after 36 years at the institution, and though Cavender admitted she didn’t personally know Folsom when she accepted the position in March, she certainly knew of him.
“I am trying to learn about his leadership and the many things he accomplished while he was here,” said Cavender when asked at the luncheon meeting about her predecessor. “I am so lucky to follow a guy like him. We have some really amazing things going at the Huntington and it is exciting to take the baton and support what he did.”
Cavender mentioned that she has deciphered that she and Folsom have different “leadership styles.”
“I am more about process; he had a lot of creativity and drive,” she said. “I do not mind being called ‘the next Jim Folsom,’ but I am in my own shoes and will go the way I want.”
Ironically, Cavender mentioned that her younger years were often spent not wearing any shoes.
“I am the daughter of a mycologist and spent a lot of years barefoot,” she said, a quip that earned a bellow of laughter from the group as she explained that the occupation focuses on fungi.
Cavender worked as vice president of science and conservation at the 1,700-acre Morton Arboretum in Chicago before joining the Huntington on May 17. She holds a B.S. degree in environmental and plant biology from Ohio University and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University in horticulture and crop science. Before joining the Morton in 2012, she served as chief programmatic officer at the Wilds, a 10,000-acre wildlife conservation center in southeastern Ohio. The Huntington is a significantly different environment than the one where she was raised and educated, but Cavender seems to have handled the transition well.
“It is really fun and I am really busy,” she said with a chuckle. “There is never a dull moment. The gardens here are amazing and I am very inspired and am immersing myself in them.”
She mentioned the recent completion of the Chinese Gardens, an ambitious project that began more than two decades ago and transformed a 15-acre swath of mostly neglected land into a world-renowned masterpiece.
“This is a magnificent place,’ said Cavender. “It is very special and is also quite a success story.”
With the assistance of a PowerPoint presentation, Cavender displayed images of the Huntington’s Studio for Lodging the Mind and a calligraphy exhibit from artist Liu Fang Yuan.
Cavender then mentioned the Japanese Heritage House, a structure that was built in 1690 and is being relocated to the Huntington and restored.
“My third day on the job, I went to its roof-raising,” Cavender said. She informed the audience that Japanese artisans had spent up to six months at the Huntington ensuring the project’s authenticity and adhering to earthquake standards.
Cavender mentioned that she is just the fourth director of the gardens in the Huntington’s history and exuded pride when she mentioned that she and her family live in the same home where William Hertrich once resided. Hertrich was Henry Huntington’s first superintendent of the gardens and is memorialized with a plaque near the Jungle Garden.
Cavender said her future will be occupied with physical projects in the gardens, working on outreach and answering the question “How do I build on the assets, but build on a programmatic level?”
Cavender and her husband, Gary Moneysmith, have two children. Their daughter, Laurel, is a junior at Marquette University and their son, Andrew, attends a school in the San Marino Unified School District.
The meeting began with a presentation of Rotary’s prestigious “Service Above Self” award, which was presented to San Marino Fire Chief Mario Rueda for his efforts to provide vaccinations against COVID-19 to as many of the community’s residents as possible.
“He was able to get the vaccine when nobody else could,” said Rotarian Nicole Basseri in honoring the chief.
Rueda accepted the award “on behalf of the entire San Marino Fire Department, City Manager [Marcella] Marlowe and the City Council.” He also acknowledged the SMFD’s “culture of caring.”
