MADISON – Mayor Robert Conley presented a resolution to the family of Mayor’s Hero Legacy Award recipient and Rotarian Bob Coultas, recognizing him for his many years of service to
MADISON – If you planted a swamp white oak tree when Cathie Coultas joined the Parks Advisory Committee in 1980, that tree would have about a sixth of its life
MADISON - Mayor Robert Conley presented medallions to three departing volunteers of borough committees and a certificate to visitors from the Youth in Government program at the Madison Area YMCA
Totty the Englishman
Among them was Charles Totty, an Englishman who in 1896 moved to Madison to work on the Twombly estate (now home to Fairleigh Dickinson University). Totty, then 23, eventually opened his own greenhouses, operated a retail store in New York City and sold throughout the region through a mail-order catalog, according to his New York Times obituary. To promote it all, he organized the first of the city’s long-dormant International Flower Shows in 1913.
Totty grafted his own specialty Australian chrysanthemums and tea rose hybrids and sold them to Rose City s growers. Among them was Joseph Ruzicka, Coultas’ grandfather. Ruzicka ran a 65,000-plant greenhouse through Madison s most productive years.