F. J. LeClair, Horticulturist
and Landscape Architect
by J. R. Massey
Francis J. LeClair was born
in Antwerp, Belgium in 1884 and graduated from the State School
of Horticulture near Brussels in 1904. He emigrated to the United
States in 1905 and worked for some years in the Baltimore, Philadelphia,
and Washington, D.C. areas.
In 1934 he was sent to North Carolina by
the Department of Agriculture, and was hired in 1935 as a Landscape
Gardener by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He
worked for a time under the guidance of Dr. William Chambers Coker,
and after Dr. Coker's death in 1953, became Director of Grounds.
Mr. LeClair retired in 1959 after twenty-five years at the University.
He died November 11, 1973 at the age of 89.
To honor this renowned horticulturist and
landscape architect, whose labor, love and skill added so mesurably
to the interest and beauty of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill campus, friends established the Francis J. LeClair
Award. This award is given annually to an outstanding graduating
senior for academic excellence in biology with an emphasis in
plant sciences.
Recipients of the
Francis J. LeClair Award at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
1974 Sandra B. Prather
1975 Marilyn C. Feldstein
1976 Leslie C. Tolley
1977 Richard L. Blanton
1978 Alan S. Weakley
1979 Claire M. McCall
1980 David F. McCain
1981 Frances Trail
1982 Steven H. Doares
1983 Timothy D. McDowell
1984 Shelia R. Ward
1985 Laura A. Buchanan
1986 Elizabeth A. Dickerson
1987 Randall S. Faircloth
1988 Gregory D. Goins
1989 Douglas B. Clark
1990 James W. Britt
1991 Rebecca A. Reed
1992 Susan L. Minneimeyer
1993 Richard C. Moore and Brian R. Kreiser
1994 Heather L. Griffins
1995 Christine C. Muth
1996 Rachel A. Harden
1998 Terri A. Long
2000 Robert I. McDonald and Amanda A. Mack
2002 Allison Jennifer Tuell
2003 Lisa Giencke
2004 Daniel McGlinn
2005 Megan Mailloux
2007 Jessica E. Long
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Francis Joseph LeClair,
A Life of Hollies and Horticulture
By William R. Burk, 26 November 2001
Francis J. LeClair had an important role
in beautifying the University of North Carolina campus, known
for its attractiveness and diversity of shrubs and trees.
Born in Antwerp, Belgium, on June 21,
1884, Francis Joseph LeClair attended the State School of Horticulture
near Brussels. He graduated in 1904 and emigrated to the United
States the following year. Initially, he worked in nurseries in
Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and New York. He was
then hired by the United States Government to fill various roles.
While working with the United States Soil Conservation Service,
he headed for North Carolina in the early 1930s where his new
responsibilities included selecting grasses to control soil erosion
in coastal areas. First appointed as a landscape gardener at UNC
around 1939, LeClair later became University landscape architect.
Honing his skills and love of horticulture at Carolina, he officially
retired on 7 November 1957.
For the campus plantings, he chose shrubs
and trees that offered seasonal interest throughout the year.
Evergreens especially were included in his plantings to evoke
cheerfulness in the winter months and soften the coldness of large
stone and brick buildings throughout the year. Of the evergreens
used, LeClair grew over 120 varieties of hollies, many of them
planted on the UNC grounds. He developed and introduced one of
these, “Pearle LeClair,”named for his wife and noted
for its large, bright red fruits. This holly is planted in the
Coker Arboretum. Stretching from East Franklin Street to the Hinton
James dormitory, his memorable landscape designs include the original
rose garden in front of the Morehead Planetarium and the remodeling
of the Old Well.
LeClair was firmly rooted into his horticultural
profession. Even after retiring, he served UNC as a landscape
consultant. At his farm in Pittsboro, NC, he spent his free time
growing hollies and other plants. UNC administrators and faculty,
as well as local friends, recognized his accomplishments. In 1956
the Faculty Council passed a resolution of commendation “for
his notable contribution to the beauty of the campus.” His
friends and colleagues honored him by establishing in the Botany
Department (now Biology) the annual Francis J. LeClair Award in
Botany, which was first given in 1974 to a senior selected for
high scholarship.
Francis J. LeClair died November 11, 1973,
and is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. He has left a horticultural
legacy that is enjoyed by many who traverse the Carolina campus
in Chapel Hill.
Nearly a decade after LeClair’s
death, nationally recognized horticulturist, garden writer, and
longtime Chapel Hill resident, William Lanier Hunt, led a holly
walk on the UNC campus. An article on this occasion was published
in the January 1983 issue of the Holly Letter, newsletter of the
Holly Society of America. Mr. Hunt dedicated the tour to several
people, among them Francis J. LeClair. He remembered LeClair as
a “wonderful horticulturist, delightful and cantankerous
man, whose beautiful plantings” adorn the campus. During
the two-hour walk through the two hundred-year-old campus, attendees
beheld mature specimens of the older American holly cultivars.
Hunt continued by saying that “older plantings here are
the work of F. J. LeClair, one of the great promoters of the Holly
Society [of America] in its formative period. Recent plantings
were made by Larry Trammel. The very oldest trees were planted,
I think by God.”
Little doubt exists that Francis LeClair
introduced and named the Pearle LeClair holly. Hunt, however,
provides some background on its origin, claiming that he found
it “on the streets of Chapel Hill as Christmas greens. Mr.
LeClair did not know that Jim Spencer at the old Lindley Nursery
in Greensboro [NC} had propagated this holly for me, nor that
the trees were already growing in my arboretum when LeClair came
to Chapel Hill. These trees are still there. Since that time,
I have given a large specimen to the campus (lost in a drought)
and two more to the Coker Arboretum.” The origin of this
special holly may be buried in time, but its splendor prevails.
