IN APRIL 2001 the WSU Libraries celebrated the acquisition of their two millionth volume. At a reception in the Owen Science and Engineering Library, botany and biology faculty, library faculty, and longtime friends gathered to thank Edith, Julia, and the late Adolph Hecht for this volume and many others.
Out of their love of plants and gardens, their appreciation of the importance of sharing information and knowledge, and their allegiance to WSU, Edith and Julia Hecht established the Hecht Family Fund for the Support of the Botanical Sciences prior to Adoph Hecht’s death in December 2000. Professor Hecht was with the WSU Department of Botany from 1947 until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1979. Edith Hecht was a social sciences librarian on the WSU Libraries faculty from 1969 to 1980. Julia grew up in Pullman and spent family vacations botanizing with her father.
At the reception Cindy Kaag, head of the science libraries, thanked the family for providing more than 60 books and one Internet database, and she announced the two millionth volume—Flora of China Illustrations (vol. 17). The book of detailed line drawings accompanies the volume Flora of China, also purchased through the fund.
Julia noted, “It’s very fitting that this volume is the Flora of China Illustrations, because we went to China in 1985.” Other donated titles also reflect exotic flora: Key to the Vascular Plants of Mongolia, Flora of Bhutan, and many volumes of the Flora of Australia. Others are set closer to home: Aboriginal Plant Use in Canada’s Northwest Boreal Forest, Vascular Plants of Montana, and Weeds of the West. “The database and volumes are a tremendous addition to our library,” said Larry Hufford, director of WSU’s Marion Ownbey Herbarium. “We’re very grateful.”