Posted 11:33 pm Saturday, July 21, 2012
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Tyler Woman Honored With Name On SFA Building
By EMILY GUEVARA
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
As a child growing up in Beeville, Ina Brundrett was surrounded by plants.
"My mother, bless her heart, had a yard full of flowers," said Ms. Brundrett, who got into gardening herself shortly after moving to Tyler in the 1950s.
Now after years of growing her own plants and sharing her horticulture skills, a building designed to educate people about plant conservation will bear her name.
The Ina Brundrett Conservation Education Building will be constructed at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus in Nacogdoches, according to a university news release.
The building will be used to develop and present environmental education programs to school students and visitors throughout East Texas, according to the news release.
It will include classroom, office and storage space, and restrooms and will be funded entirely with private donations.
Ms. Brundrett, 88, said she is humbled by the honor and was not expecting it.
She said her greatest joy comes from the knowledge that the facility will benefit school children and help to educate them.
"Education was very important to my parents and I was brought up believing that ... you just needed an education," she said by phone Friday. "That was instilled in my mind from the very start of my life."
Although construction on the facility has not yet begun, the SFA board of regents selected the architect and construction company to manage the project.
Dr. David Creech, professor emeritus of agriculture and SFA Gardens associate director, said thousands of students participate in the university's environmental education programs annually and the new facility will help connect more people to the natural world even in undesirable weather.
"We are also very excited that the facility will have an energy-efficient design that will meld into the existing forest and create a perfect setting for a conservation education center," he said, according to the news release.
More than 17,000 people participate in education programs at the SFA Gardens annually, according to the news release.
