California Landscapers Select Woman Leader : Rose Marie Head Installed as President of Oldest, Largest State Contractor Group
Rose Marie Head, of Four Seasons Gardens, Compton and Carson, has been elected the first woman president of the California Landscape Contractors Assn. Inc.
The election took place during the organization’s annual convention in Ixtapa, Mexico. She succeeds Jon Alsdorf of Heritage Landscape Inc., Granada Hills, who became chairman of the board.
J. Warren Thurston, Landscape Irrigation Co., Concord, was elected a vice president, while Barry L. Cohen of B. L. Landscape Inc., San Jose, was elected secretary.
Reelected to the organization’s executive board were: Nelson Colvin of American Landscape Inc., Canoga Park; Roger Fiske, Fiske Landscaping Inc., San Ramon and Richard Cohen of Richard Cohen Landscape & Construction, El Toro, all vice presidents. Also, treasurer Allen Chariton, Tierra Verde Landscape Inc., Huntington Beach.
Executive director Michael E. Leeson sits on the board as an ex officio member. John France of Cal-Turf, Camarillo, is the associate member representative on the board and is also president of the associate member organization of the landscape group.
Head started Four Seasons Gardens in 1973 and the firm today is located on 37 acres in the Compton-Carson area of Southern Los Angeles County.
Among the few women in California to hold a landscape contractor’s license, she is also part of the first husband and wife team to serve as president of the Sacramento-based group: Her husband, Henry Soto, general manager of Four Seasons Gardens, was the association’s first vice president and second president in 1951-52.
Her father was head gardener and greens keeper for the Del Mar Turf Club and Race Track in the 1940s. She was the first woman on the board of the Los Angeles chapter of the association, serving as vice president in 1980.
In other news of the association:
--Klaus Kumme of Kumme Landscape, Chatsworth, has been installed as 1985 president of the San Fernando Valley chapter, succeeding Ron Dietz of Dietz Hydroseeding, Van Nuys. Other new chapter officers are: Dave Junod, vice president; Roger Palmer, vice president; Kenneth Bragar, secretary; Robert Thomson, treasurer and Don Tillquist, associate representative.
--Frances Yanase of Torrance was reelected state president of the association’s Women’s Auxiliary. She also continues as president of the Pacific Coast chapter.
--Jerry Lambert was named Man of the Year among regular members and Robert Crudup Jr., Man of the Year among associate members during the convention in Ixtapa.
