Gary White

Recipient of the Gold Medal 2025

Awarded Distinguished Service Award 2018

President AIS 2016-2018

Gary White's first AIS President's Message from the AIS Winter 2016 Bulletin.

Gary White's last AIS President's Message from the AIS Fall 2018 Bulletin.

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From the AIS Winter 2026 Bulletin Honorary Awards 2025 feature:

CONGRATULATIONS TO GARY WHITE FOR BEING THE RECIPIENT OF THE AIS GOLD MEDAL!

Gary has been around irises since childhood and started growing them on his own after college. He grows a wide variety of irises, from most iris classes except for Pacific Coast irises and forty chromosome Siberians irises. His first iris gardens were in northern West Virginia (AIS Region 4) where he was raised. He and his wife, Linda Rader, moved to Nebraska (AIS Region 21) in 1993. His garden has been on local and regional tours numerous times.

On the local level, Gary has twice been president of the Lincoln Iris Society (LIS), currently starting his seventh year and has served as the LIS show chair or co-chair for most of the past thirty years. In the late 1990s, he began and edited the local LIS monthly newsletter (the Rainbow Messenger) for six years.

Regionally, Gary was treasurer, then assistant RVP, then RVP of Region 21 (2004–2007), and also a past editor of the Region 21 bulletin. He was the Region 21 secretary for three years (2023–2025). He served as chair of the combined Region 21/TBIS convention and tour in May 2004 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was chair of the combined Region 21/Median Iris Society 50th Anniversary Convention and tour in May 2007, also in Lincoln, Nebraska. He has been elected Region 21 RVP for the second time in twenty years, this term officially started November 2025.

In 2005 Gary was elected to the AIS Board of Directors and in 2007 to the AIS Foundation Board of Trustees. In 2008, he was elected secretary/treasurer of the AIS Foundation, a position held through May 2015. He remained a member of the AIS Foundation Board of Trustees, and in April 2019 was elected VP of the AIS Foundation. In March 2022, Gary was elected president of the AIS Foundation and is currently holding that position.

Gary has been a member of every AIS section and cooperating society in recent years. He served as president of the Historic Iris Preservation Society (HIPS) two terms, from 2011 to May 2015. He also served on the Society for Japanese Irises (SJI) board of directors and then VP of SJI. Effective January 2022, Gary became president of SJI and served through 2024. He was elected first VP of the Society for Siberian Irises (SSI) with a term beginning January 2023 through December 2024. He became president of SSI on January 1, 2025, and currently holds that position.

Gary was chairman of the AIS Scientific Advisory Committee for five years (2004–2009) and has continued as a member of that committee to the present. He is currently chair of the AIS Finance Committee and serves on several other AIS committees as well. For three years, he was the AIS section and cooperating society liaison. He has been a member of the AIS Bulletin Editorial Board since its inception, summer of 2023.

Gary has been an AIS judge for twenty-seven years. He has conducted judges training (both classroom, in-garden, and by ZOOM) sessions in several AIS regions, at national conventions, and in Florence, Italy. He is an emeritus judge. He has judged AIS virtual shows, including twice for the Mt. Diablo Iris Society (MDIS) virtual show, and for the Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society (SBMIS) virtual show. In August–September 2025, he judged both of those virtual shows.

After six years as AIS director, followed by terms as second VP, then first VP, Gary was elected AIS president in November 2015 and served through2018. He then served as immediate past president of AIS for three years.

Gary was co-chair of the 2017 AIS Convention in Des Moines, IA and was co-chair of the 2020 AIS Centennial Convention in Newark, NJ, until it was cancelled due to COVID-19. He is now co-chair (with Andi Rivarola and Jill Bonino) of the 2026 AIS Convention in Newark, NJ.

Gary was the honorary awards chair for HIPS for seven years, and for AIS for three years. He has given numerous programs on irises for many audiences, both AIS-affiliated and non AIS–related gardening groups, as well as for the New Zealand Iris Society. Gary has been involved in the AIS Zoom webinars from their inception to the present, and he gave the first two webinars (on AIS history) in July 2020. He has also given judges training webinars. He now manages the AIS webinars and is moderator for most of these webinars (forty-two webinars to date).

Gary has been given honorary life membership in the Lincoln Iris Society.

He also received the Region 21 distinguished service award. Gary was awarded the HIPS distinguished service award at the 2017 AIS convention in Des Moines, Iowa. He was awarded the AIS distinguished service medal at the AIS convention in San Ramon, CA, April 2019. Gary was invited to judge international iris competitions in both Florence, Italy (Firenze), where he was president of the jury, and in Paris, France (Franciris). Those competitions were conducted in May of 2019. He has been given honorary membership in the French Iris Society (SFIB). He was invited to be a judge for the first international iris competition in the U.S., June 2021 at Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in New Jersey.

The AIS board of directors granted Gary AIS emeritus judge status in 2019. In his professional life, Gary was a hospital pharmacist for thirty-five years, now retired.

Gary White AIS Gold Medal 2025 Citation copied from the AIS Winter 2026 Bulletin.

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From the AIS Winter 2019 Bulletin 2018 Distinguished Service Medals feature:

Gary White, Region 21, Lincoln, NE

As immediate past AIS President, Gary hardly needs introduction to our membership. This former West Virginian was raised on a farm and then pursued his BS and MS degrees in Botany from Fairmont State College and West Virginia University, and put himself through college working part-time in hospitals and later became a hospital pharmacist as a career. He and wife Linda joined AIS in 1994 and he has performed stellar duty in national, regional and local iris groups. This includes time as president of the Lincoln Iris Society, RVP of Region 21, president of the Historic Iris Preservation Society, secretary/treasurer of the AIS Foundation and president of AIS. Much more is detailed in his first AIS president’s message in the winter 2016 issue of IRISES. His devotion to irises, and iris people was well-noted in his calm and steady performance in his presidency. He is congratulated on a job well done.

Gary White AIS Distringuished Service Medal 2018 Citation copied from the AIS Winter 2019 Bulletin.

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-- BobPries - 2012-05-18