Del Nickerson
Week of September 18, 2000

Horticulturist, educator and longtime treasure of the Wellesley College Community, Master Greenhouseman Adelbert "Del" Nickerson is the Wellesley Person of the Week.

Del was born in Boston on August 1, 1935, to parents of Nova Scotian lineage. He was the oldest of seven children, in a family of limited financial means. Del left school at the age of 15 to find a job, to help support his family. At the age of 16 he was hired by the New England News Distributing Company, in Boston, as a magazine distributor.

Wanting to live in a more rustic setting, Del's parents moved the family from their apartment in Roxbury to an undeveloped lot of land in then rural Wilmington, MA. The family lived in an army tent, and slept on beds which Del's mother fashioned out of "two by fours and belts". Del purchased a 1937 Buick to transport himself daily to the local train station, enabling him to keep his job in Boston. The Buick was also used by his family to uproot trees, to clear the land for a dream house that would never be built. The reality of that year's harsh fall weather forced the Nickersons to sell the land, and to find better equipped accommodations elsewhere.

Del's parents didn't want to give up on rural living entirely. They moved to Antrim, NH, to a farm, where Del and his father worked 7 days a week, keeping the farm running and caring for its 80 milking cows. According to Del, "...after all of the 'deductions' for food and the like, we'd barely break even, and sometimes ended up owing the owners money".

The family left the farm, and moved into a rental unit. Del and his father took on various physically demanding jobs, including a stint on a road repair crew, and grueling labor, grinding knife handles at a cutlery factory. After another unsuccessful attempt to build a home on a lot of land they purchased, the Nickersons abandoned their Granite State living aspirations.

The Nickersons left New Hampshire and moved to the Boston neighborhood, Roslindale, into an apartment above a grocery store. Families with children were not considered to be desirable tenants, and Del's parents weren't completely forthcoming to the landlord about the size of the family. The arrangement worked out to everyone's satisfaction in the long run, once the landlord, who also owned the grocery store, realized how much food the Nickersons would buy at the store to keep the large family fed.

At the age of 20, Del found a job at a local Zayre's department store. He worked his way up in the organization, starting off as a shipping clerk and in short order becoming the manager of the "household and infants" department. His organizational and people skills were recognized by his supervisors, and Del was transferred to other Boston area branch stores to shore up poorly performing departments.

Del was drafted, and spent 2 years in the Army, in Fort Dix and Fort Monmouth, NJ. He began as an infantry scout, and ended his brief military career in the medical corps, "coordinating the schedules of doctors, preachers and undertakers". Del earned his General Equivalency Diploma (GED) while he was in the army. His military credentials, and steady employment record, made it possible for him to help his father secure a loan to purchase a house in Roslindale.

Following two out of state assignments by Zayre's, Del resigned, and applied for work at Carter Underwear Company, in Needham, MA. He lacked college background, which was a stated prerequisite for the job he was after, but he impressed the interviewer with his keen mathematical skill, and his performance on the company's psychological screening examinations. He was hired as the "Production Planner for Mill 8 in Mississippi". In that role, Del projected future yarn and material needs of the mill for which he was responsible.

In response to a newspaper ad, Del applied to work at Wellesley College's greenhouses. He lacked any formal related experience. Nevertheless, he impressed Head Greenhouseman Joe Jennings, and Greenhouse Director, Professor Harriet Creighton, with his employment record, and desire to learn. His first day on the job was May 6, 1963. Del worked at Wellesley College, and concurrently took courses, and earned an A.S. degree in Horticulture at Massachusetts Bay Community College. In 1986, he earned the North American Certificate in Horticulture from the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. In 1980, Del became Wellesley's Head Horticulturist, and he continued in that role until his retirement on August 1, 2000.

Many and varied members of the college community came to depend on Del, a highly approachable and extremely articulate gardening guru. In addition to his work running Wellesley College's Margaret C. Ferguson Greenhouses
and Alexandra Botanic Garden, Del oversaw Wellesley College's participation in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's New England Spring Flower Show. Under Del's direction, Wellesley College won numerous awards for its educational exhibit entries.
Del has been a landscape, plants and flower judge at the event for over 15 years. Del has judged agricultural exhibits at the Topsfield Fair, and judged floral exhibits at the Worcester Horticultural Society's Summer Flower Show.

Del is a lecturer and teacher, for people of all ages. He has presented at venues including the New England Wildflower Society in Framingham, MA, Natick Community Organic Farm, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Included among his work with young audiences are classes he has taught at Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, MA, Mary Finn School, in Southboro, MA, and one of his favorite presentations for children, "Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow", which was sponsored by the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture.

Del served on the steering committee of the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture since its inception. He is a member of the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, the Worcester County Horticultural Society, and is a past-president of the Horticulture Club of Boston and the Gardeners and Florists Club, among a host of other professional and cultural affiliations. Throughout his career at Wellesley College, he has been a member in good standing of the college's Independent Maintenance and Service Employees Union.

He has been featured in articles in the Boston Globe and Yankee Magazine. Del has appeared on WBZ -TV's Evening Magazine, Christian Science Monitor Channel's Good Green Earth, and various PBS productions.

Del Nickerson lives with his wife Diane in Southboro, MA.

Written by Mur Wolf