Midwest Bonsai Society
The Jules Ladany Award
Two of
our founding members were Jules and Ruth Ladany. Both Jules
and Ruth were very active in bonsai at D. Hill prior to the
formation of the Society as it is today. Without the
leadership of those two, there may very well been no
Society today.
The Ladanys were very generous to the organization in many
ways. They not only gave of their time and their thought to
the Society, but they also donated money and held many of
the early meetings in their home.
When Jules died, Ruth determined that she wanted to have an
annual award in Jules' name. The award had basically two
requirements. The person had to have devoted time and
effort to the advancement of the Midwest Bonsai Society.
The person honored had to have kept some bonsai trees in
good health and continued growth for a number of years.
This award is a silver bowl on a wooden base. Recipient's
names are inscribed on plaques on the base. This silver
bowl is given to the honoree for a year. The honoree also
gets a smaller replica of the large bowl to keep
permanently.
This honor is presented each year at the Saturday banquet
during the August Show.
1979 Alex Alexander
1980 Les Lange
1981 Charles and Elizabeth Wilson
1982 Stephen Lahuta
1983 Don Willkomm
1984 Alex Alexander
1985 M. P. Voynovich
1986 Ivan A. Watters
1987 E. A. Morris
1988 Kevin Jones
1989 Fran Hiller
1990 Tom Tecza
1991 Kelley Adkins
1992 Jack Fried
1993 Carlos Martinez
1994 Leonard Wegryn
1995 LaLa Pasternak
1996 Elias Fischer
1997 Lorraine May
1998 Shigeo Ito
1999 Don Willkomm
2000 Mary & Sam Himoto
2001 Jack Thompson
2002 Rich Helminiak
2003 Ed & Joann Polley
2004 Steve Snoke
2005 Larry Larimer
2006 Mary Fahey
2007 Susuma Nakamura