John Edward Coulter

John Edward Coulter, age 98, of Grants Pass died Friday, March 13, 2009 at Royale Gardens Health and Rehabilitation Center.

Private family and friends’ services will be held at Hull and Hull Funeral Directors in Grants Pass.

John Coulter was born on May 22, 1910 on a homestead in Hermosa, South Dakota to Walter Coulter and Nettie Ditch Coulter. The family moved to Tranquility in California’s central valley region in 1913 and later to Watsonville, San Jose and the San Francisco Bay area. He was involved in horticulture from his first job in 1927 with Ray Hartman of Leonard Coates nurseries till his retirement. He spent summers during the 30s working with a Carnegie Institution study of ecological genetics of plant species led by William Hiesey, Jens Clausen and David Keck. On April 14, 1937, he married Joyce Nelson and the two of them spent his last summer at the research station at Camp Mather, on the western edge of Yosemite National Park.

During World War II, John worked at the shipyards in San Francisco. He remembered seeing the battleship Indiana dock there. After the war, in 1948, John owned and ran Coulter’s Nursery in San Carlos, California. He acted as president of the Peninsula Chapter of the California Nurseryman’s Association. He was active in the California Horticultural Society. He served as Program Chair, Vice President and President. And helped found the Peninsula Chapter, Western Horticultural society in April 1968. After retiring from the retail nursery business he worked as Superintendent of the Saratoga Horticultural Foundation. His wife, Joyce, worked alongside him in the nursery and at the foundation and he developed a new Ceanothus variety, naming it Ceanothus Joyce Coulterii in her honor. It is still commonly used in landscaping in California and the northwest.

During his retirement in Grants Pass, John remained active in the horticultural and environmental community.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Joyce Coulter and grandson, Stephen Malko, John leaves four daughters: Jacklyn Clark of Hugo, Karen Coulter of Alameda, California, Doreen Zaiss of Gray Creek, British Columbia and Becky Coulter of St. Joseph, Minnesota as well as eight grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.