Hall Of Fame Inductees
The individuals nominated should have made a significant impact or positive influence that assures the future of our industry in the lives of generations to come.
Once nominated, an individual’s biography and photo are updated on the site, and he or she is placed in the polls for voting. At the end of the year the committee takes into consideration the votes and decides which candidates are inducted.
Those with a star (*) next to their name below were either inducted posthumously or have passed away since being inducted.
Nomination Qualifications
- Person with integrity and passion
- Minimum 20 years in industry
- Someone who has developed or invented new technology
- Has made contributions that resulted in change
- Contributed to mankind’s needs in his field
- Provided education and encouragement with self-sacrifice
- Changed the industry
John Greenlee
Greenlee & Associates
John has been in the Green Industry for over forty years. He graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in Ornamental Horticulture in 1978 under the tutelage of 2015 Green Industry Hall of Fame Inductee, Dave Lannom.
Following college, John earned his California Landscape Contractors License and began designing and installing landscapes. Through this work he was instrumental in bringing ornamental grasses into the palette of plants used in California landscapes and wrote one of the first books about them in 1992. His book, The Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, gave John the widely known nickname of ‘The Grassman’.
From 1987 until 2009, John operated Greenlee Nursery that specialized in ornamental grasses and other components of natural looking meadow plantings. In 2009 he wrote, The American Meadow Garden (Timber Press). Though no longer operating a nursery, he has continued to design landscapes focusing on meadows and grass ecology and has introduced many new plants to the nursery trades.
He is internationally known and has spoken at conferences throughout the world about designing naturalist looking landscapes.