"It's all in the genes", says UCLA alumnus Stan Penton, the garden's docent expert on palms of all sizes, shapes, and origins. Stan is referring to the proud fact that in 1927 his maternal grandfather, Fred Standish Kenfield, on the front steps of the Pasadena post office was awarded an engraved, silver-plated shovel for his work in getting palm trees planted along Colorado Boulevard by then California Governor C. C. Young. Stan, despite some recent health challenges, still actively continues his family's devotion and dedication to palms worldwide, and specifically to those found in the MEMBG.
Whereas Stan may not have received an engraved shovel, he most certainly has received-and still receives-accolades from his fellow docents, MEMBG Director Gibson, and myself. He is known and appreciated for his engaging wit, ready smile, and willingness to volunteer his services. He has been most hospitable by making his home available as a pit stop for docents on their way to field trips at the Getty Museum and elsewhere in west Los Angeles.
Graduating from UCLA in 1943, Stan received a B.A. in Business Administration, Management, and Industry. While a student, he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and fondly recalls "the mish-mosh of plants and junk" in the fraternity's garden. Perhaps it was that experience, in addition to his family's influence, that laid the groundwork for Stan's love of plants and gardens. A few years after leaving UCLA, Stan recounts how as secretary, treasurer, and chairman of California Metal Enameling Company, located in the City of Commerce, he was responsible for landscaping its large parking lot! His was a grand gesture, long before the concept became popular, of greening the urban jungle.
After a stint as a docent at UCLA's Japanese garden, in 1997 Stan joined the MEMBG docent program. He brought much to his docenting with the MEMBG. Stan's resumé of garden and volunteer experiences is quite impressive and spans both decades and interests. A sampling includes memberships in LA Beautiful, LA Conservancy, the Historical Society of Southern California, the Society of Architectural Historians, the American Horticultural Society, Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden Men's Garden Club of Los Angeles, Virginia Robinson Gardens Friends, Fellows of Contemporary Art, Indian Guides, the Boy Scouts of America, the Theodore Payne Foundation, and the International Palm Society.
His interests have led Stan and his wife Audree to travel widely throughout the United States, India, South America, Africa, Central America, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Stan's favorite gardens, aside from UCLA's gardens, are the Singapore Botanic Garden, the Brookgreen Garden-Murrells Inlet in South Carolina, the Huntington Garden in San Marino, and the Fairchild Garden in Miami.
A one-time resident of Del Mar, he tells of having a wind-swept Torrey pine in his front yard, planted, he believes, by a bird dropping a seed at the right time and in the right place. Stan laughs comparing his Del Mar Torrey pine to the towering one at MEMBG. "The MEMBG Torrey Pine is so happy and large it's almost sinful!" Well Stan, we at the MEMBG would like nothing better than to present you with a silver-plated shovel so large it would be considered sinful too. Instead, we will simply say, "thank you for being."
CAROL FELIXSON, Docent and Communications Coordinator