Lida Rogers and the Holland Tulip Time

Lida Rogers.

Compiled by Niece Gertrude Tressler

BIOLOGY TEACHER WAS ORIGINATOR OF TULIP TIME

It was back in 1927 that the late Miss Lida Rogers, biology teacher at Holland High School, suggested that Holland residents plant tulips to beautify the city and perhaps declare a one-day holiday to revel in their beauty and keep alive some of the old Dutch traditions. Tulip planting started on a smaller scale but soon developed into Tulip Time and nationwide popularity. The idea was expressed an address before the Woman's Literary Club. Miss Rogers retired some years ago from her teaching position and had been staying in a nursing home in Marne at the time of her death in 1963.

Today's nationally-known Tulip Time festival was just an idea back 1927--a simple suggestion made by a high school biology teacher during a lecture before the Woman's Literary Club. It was on April 26, 1927, that the late Lida Rogers, head of the botany and biology department at Holland High School, addressed the Woman's Literary Club on "Civic Beauty.”

At this time Miss Rogers suggested the city select a particular flower as a civic project and perhaps devote one day a year in the community celebration.

In view of the fact about 85% of the residents of Holland were of Dutch extraction at that time, she suggested the tulip because of Holland’s link with the Netherlands.

The immense gap between idea and action was bridged when Common Council with Earnest C. Brooks as mayor voted to buy 100,000 imported bulbs. By 1929, Tulip Time was announced to the world -- an eight-day festival beginning with the Saturday nearest the 15th day of May,

Since World War II it has been operated as a four-day festival, incorporating all the attractions of the previous longer festivals.

While Miss Rogers was acclaimed as the founder of Tulip Time, she dis­played considerable more interest in general conservation and civic beauty. Closest to her heart was the Albert C. Keppel School Forest on Lakewood Blvd., which she and her biology students helped to develop through the years. This work was begun in the early 1930's and the 80-acre forest today boasts of a fine stand of trees.

Miss Rogers was born June 20, 1877, on a farm in Lenawee County and when she was three years old her family moved to Oceana County where she attended rural schools. She was graduated from Michigan State Normal College at Ypsilanti and taught in Oceana county schools and at Carthage, Ind., before coming to Holland around the early 1920s.

A secret desire to become a doctor did not materialize and Miss Rogers entered wholeheartedly into "the next best thing" and devoted her attention to biology and botany. Throughout the years she inspired her pupils to look for beauty in their surroundings and to conserve the glories of nature.

Graduate studies at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin and a trip abroad in 1923 combined with interests in educat­ional fields provided a full life for the teacher who came to regard Holland, Michigan as her home,

Besides her many professional interests, she was active in the local DAR chapter and in the Eastern Star. In the 1950s she conceived the idea of a "Council for Civic Beauty" in Holland and with the &help of the late Park Supt. Dick Smallenburg and city fathers launched a program largely geared to encouraging well-kept yards, attractive plantings with particular emphasis to landscaping at motels, service stations and the like. While an admirer of beauty in parks, she nevertheless promoted outdoor living.

In 1928, Miss Rogers was one of the 12 persons nominated for "Michigan's Outstanding Woman" by the Grand Rapids Business and Professional Women's Club. At that time her nomination carried the support of Mayor Henry Geerlings, School Supt. E. E. Fell and the Chamber of Commerce Manager William M. Connelly.

One of the last thrills Miss Rogers experienced was receiving a bouquet of tulips one month before her death on June 15, 1963 from Chamber of Commerce Secretary William H. Vande Water. At the time of the presen­tation, May 15, a bed of tulips was in full bloom in the nursing Home's yard clearly visible from Miss Roger's window. The bulbs had been presented last fall by Holland Tulip Time Festival Inc.

Miss Rogers was granted an honorary degree of Master of Education by her as Eastern Michigan University. The school is the second oldest normal school for training teachers in the United States and the first west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Miss Rogers was 85 at the time of death in Beacon Light Christian nursing Home in Marne.

Buried in Oak Grove Cemetery near Rothbury. The cemetery is located two miles south and a mile west of Rothbury. Miss Rogers is buried on the Rogers plot. The small stone is in the shadow of a large granite marker honoring the war dead of Grant Township. Located in Grant township, the small cemetery is on recently named Webster Road, The Road was formerly called Roger's Road in honor of Miss Rogers' parents. Miss Rogers’ parents are also buried in Rothbury. The cemetery is about two miles from Miss Rogers' birthplace. The old Rogers home­stead still stands and serves as a farm home as it did in the days when she was a child, Garwood said. In addition to fruit farming, the Rogers family also kept a large herd of dairy cattle, Garwood said.