I met Robert J . ( Bob ) Gordon just about the time when he had published his first book , Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid , in 1985 . He created his own publishing company : Laid-Back Publications ... and that said it all about this man . He was always calm and composed and spoke with a strong voice but with a slow delivery that everyone could understand . I invited him to speak to our orchid society in New York in January 1986 , where he gave a talk or perhaps I could say a sermon on growing Phalaenopsis : the room was so quiet that you could “ hear a pin drop ” as it is said . People were mesmerized by this man and the way that he delivered his talk . At the end of the evening , we were all “ converted ” to his Phalaenopsis culture the way that he explained it . From that day on , we became good friends until he retired and moved to the California Hills around the turn of the millennium . I saw him one last time two years ago during an IPA Regional meeting at Norman ’ s Orchids in Ontario California . He was giving a talk on Phalaenopsis culture the Bob Gordon way . He had not missed a beat . His culture book was such a success that he printed it several times , and as Bob was zigzagging around the country , people were buying his book by the tens or hundreds . Bob was a retired Air Force instructor , and as such , he learned to write and speak in a language that everyone could understand . With him , there were no complicated words or long convoluted phrases . During those years , he was the hottest thing in the orchid talk circuit . He went on to write three other books : Beginners Guide to Growing Phalaenopsis in 1986 , Phalaenopsis Culture : A Worldwide Survey in 1988 , and Orchid Seedling Care in 1991 . In the winter of 1988 , the late Arnie Linsman , the first editor of the Phalaenopsis Newsletter , and I made a trip to California to visit orchid nurseries and we teamed up with Bob Gordon . There we learned that Bob , the great writer , was not the best of orchid grower , as in this trip we had the opportunity to visit his house and greenhouses in Rialto , California . He lived in at the foothills of the California Sierra Nevada in the desert where temperatures were very high and humidity during the day was as best 20 %. With these conditions , you had to follow a very precise routine just to keep the orchids alive , and thus that was the reason for his first book : a very exact plan to grow his orchids , and he did that by interviewing all of the good Phal growers that he could reach . The compilation of all of the comments and advice given by others on how to grow Phalaenopsis was the basis for his book . His book was very well received and his Phals somehow managed to survive . He loved the reds and the blue Phals . The 1988 California tour was such a success that plans were made to make this journey a year later , adding Tom Harper to the group . It was during this trip in January 1989 that the idea of forming the IPA was born . I remember that the trip ended in Anaheim , California in the home of another well known Phalaenopsis grower , John Miller . There , John explained to us that there had been two other Phalaenopsis groups formed earlier in the 1950s and 1960s but both had failed after a couple of years and he was reluctant to give us his blessing because of this . But we were determined to do it . In the spring of 1990 , we all met during a Speakers Day hosted by the Delaware Orchid Council and at the end of the meeting the IPA was formed . At this meeting in 1990 , Bob Gordon proposed the concept of having Regional Directors ( instead of trustees ) and he volunteered to be the person in charge to provide the IPA with a map of the US describing the 12 regions . Since he was in the midst of his speaking tour , he had met Phalaenopsis fanciers all over the country . So , he drew the map and he contacted and proposed the first regional directors for the organization . This concept worked well for the IPA then and is still being used today . In retrospect , I think Bob Gordon was the force behind the formation of the IPA , but his laid-back nature and his ailing wife prevented him from being very active in it . However , he found three people that he thought that could do it : Tom Harper , Arnie Linsman and me . With his help and enthusiasm , the IPA became a reality , and for that we thank you , Bob .
Phalaenopsis - Fourth Quarter , Vol . 21 ( 2 ) 2011
Carlos F . Fighetti
Remembering Bob Gordon
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