Phalaenopsis Journal First Quarter Vol. 21(3) 2012 | Page 11

Introducing
the IPA 2012 officers
Welcome to our newly elected officers
IPA President - Carlos Fighetti
Carlos Fighetti has been involved in
orchids for nearly forty years. He
was the founding President of the
IPA and is the current First Vice-
President of the organization. He
is the immediate past president of
the American Orchid Society, and
has been on the Board of Trustees
that organization for fourteen years,
five years as a trustee, four years as the vice-president,
three years as the president and now as the immediate past
president. He has been a member and has chaired several
committees of the AOS.
He is a member and a past president of the Greater New
York Orchid Society, where he also served for eight years as
show Chair of the New York International Orchid Show. In
addition, he is a member and was a trustee of the Ramapo
Orchid Society in New Jersey. He is the current president
of the Puerto Rico Orchid Society, and a member of the
Mayagüez, Orquidistas del Sur and Orquidistas de Borin-
quen Orchid Societies in Puerto Rico. He is also a member
of the Pleurothallid Alliance, and the Peruvian and Chil-
ean Orchid Societies
An accredited AOS judge, he chairs the recently formed
Puerto Rico site of the Florida Caribbean Judging Center.
Carlos has among his judging experiences, four World
Orchid Conferences, the Tokyo Grand Prix Orchid Show,
the Taiwan International Orchid Show and several Latin
American shows. He has lectured about orchids all over
the US and Canada and at many international venues.
Carlos lives in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, where he grows
approximately 2,500 orchid plants. He grows a mixed col-
lection, including a good number of species. A grower of
note, his plants have received over 130 awards from the
AOS for horticultural, flower quality and cultural merits,
including three FCCs and one CCE. He has also received
eight AOS show trophies and many other awards for ex-
hibits at orchid shows around the country.
Phalaenopsis - First Quarter, Vol. 21(3) 2012
Professionally, Carlos retired as a Senior Research As-
sociate of the Engineering School at Columbia University,
where he was the Director of a well-known research labo-
ratory working on nuclear reactor safety. “The main em-
phasis was in determining the integrity of the reactor cores
and the meltdown levels for normal operating as well as
accident conditions for just about every nuclear reactor in
the world, including the Russian designs.”
First Vice President -
Cathy Rider
Cathy Rider lives in Austin, Texas.
She has been Recording Secre-
tary for the IPA since 2009. She
and her husband have been in-
volved with orchids since 1971.
Rider studied at Texas A&M and
the University of Florida, receiving
.her degree from Texas A&M in
Horticulture with an emphasis in Flori-
culture. She has worked in the retail and wholesale horti-
culture industry.
Rider currently owns Silver Orchid, an orchid plant sales
and event floral business. She and her husband, James, are
active in their local orchid society, Heart of Texas Orchid
Society, co-chairing the 2nd Vice-President position.
Membership secretary -
Lynn Fuller
I grew up with orchids. My father
was given his first orchids by my
mother early in their marriage be-
cause she felt he needed a hobby.
It quickly grew into his lifelong ob-
session (as orchids tend to do). At
the time of his death he had his 1500+
orchids in a three-room estate greenhouse
.....
the he had been renting for over 35 years. I individually
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