On a September morning at the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens, family, friends, former students and colleagues gathered to celebrate the life of Jodie Holt in a place that had become one of the great passions of her life.
They came from different chapters of Holt’s life — childhood friends, graduate school classmates, faculty colleagues, former students and members of the Botanic Gardens community. Some traveled from across the country. Together, they remembered an accomplished scientist and educator, but also a mentor, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and friend known for her kindness, humor, curiosity and ability to bring people together.
Looking around at the gathering, Patricia Springer, Divisional Dean of Agricultural Resources and Interim Director of the UCR Botanic Gardens, thought immediately about how much Holt herself would have enjoyed it.
“This is exactly the day she would have loved,” Springer said. “She loved a garden party and bringing people together, and she would have absolutely loved this.”
Holt, Professor Emerita of Botany and Plant Sciences and former Director of the UCR Botanic Gardens, died April 27. She spent more than four decades at UC Riverside as a scientist, teacher and campus leader, ultimately devoting the final chapter of her career to the Gardens.
But on Saturday, the titles and accomplishments were only part of the story.
‘She was just being herself’
For Holt’s husband, Doug Holt, hearing so many people speak about the impact she had on their lives was both moving and unsurprising.
Asked what Jodie might have thought about so many people traveling from across the country to celebrate her, he laughed.
“I think she’d be embarrassed,” he said.
Not because she wouldn’t have appreciated the gathering, but because she never saw what came naturally to her as anything extraordinary.
“She was just being herself,” he said. “She wasn’t trying to be anything other than who she was. It just came very naturally.”
Doug knew Jodie before the distinguished career, the leadership roles and the generations of students she would eventually mentor. Over the years, he watched her grow as a teacher, scientist and leader, while the qualities at the center of who she was remained remarkably constant.
“At her core was kindness and a genuine concern for everyone,” he said. “She always looked for the best in people.”
That included him.
“She made me a better person, too.”
Holt’s sister, Laura Francis, remembered the Jodie she had known long before the titles and accomplishments.
“She was always there for me,” Francis said. “I could talk to her about anything.”
The sisters shared 67 years together, and Francis described Jodie as a role model whose example influenced her own life.
A mentor whose influence endured
Holt’s influence was especially evident in the former graduate students who returned to remember the mentor who helped shape not only their careers, but the people they became.
Lauren Quinn, who earned her Ph.D. under Holt from 2000 to 2006, remembered both the rigor Holt expected from her students and the personal example she set for them. Quinn recalled Holt’s liberal use of a red pen on her writing, but also the way Holt welcomed students into her home and showed them that a successful career did not have to come at the expense of family, friendship or fun.
Other former students recalled arriving in Holt’s office with research questions, professional worries and the usual challenges of graduate school.
Holt would listen, pull out a notepad and begin working through the problem. One former student drew laughter when she joked that there seemed to be no problem Holt could not solve by turning it into a randomized complete block design.
Students remembered walking into her office overwhelmed and leaving with a plan — and often a little more perspective.
Years later, some said they still find themselves drawing on Holt’s example as they mentor students and lead others in their own careers.
Her colleagues remembered that same generosity.
Darleen DeMason, Professor Emerita of Botany and Plant Sciences, recalled being among a small number of women faculty in the department with Holt early in their careers. When DeMason was home with a new baby, Holt once offered to come over for lunch. Instead, she arrived, made lunch, helped care for the baby and took over long enough for her friend to rest.
Years later, the two taught Botany 104 together. DeMason remembered Holt creating a classroom that was calm, welcoming, and filled with curiosity — an experience she still remembered decades later.
Again and again, the stories returned to the same qualities: generosity, intelligence, humor, calm, and an instinct for helping people find their way forward.
A vision that lives on
CNAS Dean Peter Atkinson knew Holt as a fellow administrator before he became dean. The two served together as divisional deans, and Atkinson recalled that when difficult issues arose, colleagues often found themselves gathering in Holt’s office.
It was there that they worked through budget questions, faculty matters and the occasional absurdities of university administration.
Holt brought “rational thinking, problem solving, good humor” to those conversations, Atkinson said, describing her as “an extraordinary person, an extraordinary colleague.”
After Holt retired from the faculty, she became Director of the UCR Botanic Gardens in 2016. Atkinson remembered conversations with her even before then about what the Gardens could become.
On Saturday, standing in the place she eventually helped lead, he invited those gathered to look around.
“Look around us and see what a treasure the Botanic Gardens have become,” Atkinson said.
One piece of Holt’s vision remains unfinished. During the final years of her life, she worked to develop the Plant Pavilion, a new structure envisioned to replace the Botanic Gardens’ aging geodesic dome, provide a home for its collection of cycads and other plants, and create a place for learning and gathering.
At Holt’s Celebration of Life, renderings of the future pavilion were displayed for guests. The Gardens also announced plans for a fundraising campaign in her memory to help bring the project to completion.
It is a fitting continuation of a life spent helping things grow — plants, students, colleagues, friendships and a garden she loved.
Jodie Holt did not get to see the Plant Pavilion completed. But the people whose lives she touched now have an opportunity to finish what she started.
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In Memory of Jodie Holt
One of Jodie Holt’s final projects as Director of the UCR Botanic Gardens was the Plant Pavilion, a new space designed to replace the beloved geodesic dome, which houses the Gardens’ cycad collection. Jodie was heavily involved in designing the new space for housing plants, as well as a space for learning and gathering. Memorial gifts may be made to the Plant Pavilion Fund to help bring Jodie’s vision to completion.
Make a gift to the Plant Pavilion Fund
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