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Kruckeberg Botanic Garden

The Kruckeberg Botanic Garden at Richmond Beach, in Shoreline, Washington, is a public garden dedicated to community enjoyment and educational enrichment. Mareen and Arthur Kruckeberg assembled the Garden’s four-acre plant collection over many years. It is rich in native plants of the Pacific Northwest and unusual species from other lands, set in a wooded, park-like atmosphere. The bird list identifies over 41 species that have visited the Garden. In January 2008 the Garden became part of the City of Shoreline’s park system. The Kruckeberg Botanic Garden Foundation (KBGF) is responsible for operation and maintenance of the Garden, in collaboration with the City of Shoreline. The KBGF also operates the on-site MsK Rare Plant Nursery.

Hours and Tours

The Garden is open to the public at designated hours, for tours, by appointment, and for horticultural workshops.

KBGF Mission Statement

Kruckeberg Botanic Garden Foundation

The Kruckeberg Botanic Garden Foundation became a Washington State corporation in 1998 with the objective of conserving the Kruckeberg land and plant collection in perpetuity, as a garden, open space, and horticultural learning center for the public good. (KBGF By-Laws)

The citizens of Shoreline approved a Parks, Open Space and Trails levy in 2006 which enabled the City of Shoreline to acquire the Garden in January 2008. The KBGF and the City have formed a partnership charging the Foundation with running the Garden and the on-site MsK Rare Plant Nursery. The Foundation is also developing plans to raise the funds needed for endowing a maintenance program.

The Kruckeberg Botanic Garden Foundation is a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. We seek donations and grants for the purpose of preserving and enhancing the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden.

Board of Directors

Bill Schnall, President
Richard Leary, Vice President
Judy Allen
Paul Grace
John Hagman
Robert Hauck
Richard G. Olmstead
Enid Kriewald, ex officio
Arthur R. Kruckeberg (garden founder), ex officio
Betsy McGregor
Karren Russell
Brock Parker

Bill Schnall, President

Bill Schnall, M.D., was born and raised on Long Island but started inching west to attend Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with high honors in Biology and returned to New York City to attend Cornell University Medical College. Upon graduation in 1971, he began his career in pediatrics in the Pacific Northwest – first as an intern and resident at Children’s Hospital, followed by two years as Lt. Commander in the U. S. Navy based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, and then thirty years in pediatric practice here in Shoreline. He retired in 2006.

Bill married his junior high school classmate, Jan, in 1973. They have two adult daughters, Lisa and Amy. While in Shoreline, Bill served ten years on the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce, eight years on the Shoreline School Board, and as President of the Medical Staff at Children’s Hospital.

Bill’s passionate interest in horticulture started innocently enough with a gift, from Jan, of an African violet in 1972. While he no longer has that particular plant, his home, both inside and out, is approaching the density (and beauty) of an Amazonian Rain Forest. He is most proud of his burgeoning bonsai collection and the unusual plant specimens obtained from the Kruckeberg Garden and Heronswood Nursery.

Bill’s retirement includes an active exercise program, traveling, engaging his West Highland terrier in active play, reading, woodworking and financial management at his former medical practice, but his love, passion and devotion to horticulture finds him doing “something” in the garden at least three days/week. When it is just too cold, too dark or too wet to be in the garden, Bill would most likely be found elbow-deep in flour (as opposed to flower) making loaves of bread.
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T. Richard Leary, Ph.D., Vice President

Rick is an avid cook and gardener. He recently retired after working 40 years in the biomedical and biotechnology industry. He worked in management positions for research & development and operations. Dr. Leary has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Purdue University, was an American Cancer Society Post-Doctoral Fellow in Chemistry at Purdue University, and was an Associate Investigator of the Howard Medical Institute at the University of Washington. He has a 3rd degree black belt in Aikido and a 5th degree black belt Jodo.
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Paul Grace

Paul Grace is a native of the Midwest who grew up outside St. Louis. He is a 1968 graduate of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and there he met Claire, his wife and life partner of 37 years. After working overseas for several years, they lived in Boston until moving to Seattle in 1983.

The Graces were drawn here by Shoreline’s great schools, but it’s the quality of our neighborhoods – and neighbors – that keeps them here. Their third of an acre is replete with Kruckeberg Garden shrubs, ground covers and trees, which they began collecting at a Mothers’ Day sale almost 20 years ago.

Their daughters attended Shoreline schools, and Paul was active in the PTA, Art Docent program and other aspects of their education. He served on the Shorewood Site Council and then as a member of the Shoreline School Board, including terms as vice president and president. Paul was appointed to the Shoreline City Council in 2003 and served through 2005.

Paul worked in human resources and labor relations from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. For the past 13 years he has worked for the Port of Seattle in labor relations and systems operations. In addition to school and City Council activities, a major civic endeavor has been conflict resolution. Paul has served as a mediator for dispute resolution centers throughout Western Washington since 1993, mediating landlord-tenant, commercial, workplace, family and neighborhood disputes, and arbitrating business cases for the Better Business Bureau.

Paul and Claire are avid sea kayakers. They’ve enjoyed kayaking in many areas of the United States and Canada, including a week-long exploration of Moresby Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Paul loves to garden, and he supplies his house (and neighborhood) with vegetables and flowers throughout most of the year. He is the family chef (favorite cuisine: Italian) and for years has donated gourmet meals to school, Chamber, Arts Council and other community auctions.
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Robert C. Hauck

Bob Hauck first experienced the joy of bare feet in loamy soil in his parents’ 1940s “victory garden.” During school years in Minnesota he worked summers as a Scout canoeing guide and then a biologist with the fisheries research unit for the state – in that state, of course, studying the ecology of fresh water lakes and streams. The demands of medical and graduate school drove him back to the soil where he annually found solace in a 50’ x 50’ vegetable garden.

In the mid-1960s Children’s Hospital and the northwest climate lured him away from Minnesota’s six-month growing season to year round gardening. When the Hauck family moved to the old Taylor farm home in Richmond Beach they knew they had arrived at a plant paradise. For over 30 years they have cultivated their 1.5 acre plot in the Kruckeberg neighborhood.

Bob retired from his pediatric practice at Group Health Cooperative in 1996 but still works part time at GHC and Richmond Beach Pediatrics. He has always been deeply invested in medical education and is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine. In retirement he is active in Shoreline Rotary Club (president 2001-2002), Shoreline/Lake Forest Park Arts Council, and other community activities.

Bob and wife Katie use their home as an informal B&B for 6 married children and 14 grandchildren. Gardening as a hobby competes for Bob’s time with tennis, traveling, golf, grand-parenting, and bridge. He volunteers for the Board as an appreciation for Mareen and Art, as an extension of his favorite hobby, and to insure the Garden as a priceless asset in our community’s future.
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Richard G. Olmstead

Dick Olmstead’s teaching and research interests are on the systematics and evolutionary relationships of plants, with an emphasis on primitive angiosperms and plants in the mint, potato/tomato, borage, foxglove, verbena, and related families. He teaches plant systematics at the University of Washington, carrying on the tradition of C. L. Hitchcock, Art Kruckeberg, and Melinda Denton. As Curator of the Herbarium, he is interested in documenting the plant biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest and organizing and leading field trips throughout the region. The Herbarium also participates in plant surveys in cooperation with various federal, state, local, and private land management agencies.

Dick’s interest in gardening with natives was stimulated by his association with Art Kruckeberg when he was a graduate student at UW. After returning to UW as a faculty member, Dick began his own garden with native plants and plants from around the world that he collected or were of scientific interest. The Olmsteads have one acre in Lake Forest Park that is half garden and half woodland (a native plant restoration project in progress). MsK Nursery has been a source of many interesting plants in their garden.
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Enid Kriewald, ex officio

Enid is one of Professor Kruckeberg’s daughters.
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Arthur Rice Kruckeberg, ex officio

More info on the Garden’s founder is on the history page.
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