Published: October 30, 2006 11:37 pm            

Dalton State College hosts chestnut tree dedication

An American Chestnut tree was planted on the Dalton State College campus on Monday in honor of native Daltonian Mary Belle Price.

The former Mary Belle Young, a 1935 graduate of Dalton High School, became with her husband, Glenn C. Price, tireless champions for the American Chestnut tree, which was nearly destroyed during the 1904 blight.

Marshal Case, president and CEO of the American Chestnut Foundation’s board of directors, was on hand for the dedication ceremony.

“Mary Belle Price has been presented to the American Chestnut board of directors for nomination as an honorary director,” Case said during the ceremony. “Former President Jimmy Carter, long-time honorary director of TACF, will be pleased to know that a fellow Georgian has received this great honor.”

Others who participated in the ceremony were Carolyn Hill, president of the Georgia chapter of the foundation; Fred Hebard, staff pathologist of the foundation’s Meadowview Research Farms; John Hutcheson, vice president for academic affairs at Dalton State; and David Carlton, who works in plant operations for the college.

The Chestnut tree planted on the Dalton State campus is three-quarters American Chestnut; it contains Chinese Chestnut genes that make it blight resistant.

“Chestnut trees once dominated eastern forests, comprising as much as one-fourth of the entire Southern Appalachian landscape,” said Don Davis, professor of sociology.

Price, along with her husband Glenn, established a farm in Meadowview, Va., for the planting of the American Chestnut tree as a research program of the foundation. She also established a $1,000 scholarship for high school students in the Washington County, Va., area where she and her husband spent most of their married life.

“Mary Belle Price has provided quiet and consistent wisdom, counsel, encouragement and funds to help the foundation move forward with its mission of restoring the American Chestnut to eastern forests,” Case said.



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The Price File

Mary Belle Young was born Feb. 14, 1918, in Appling County near Baxley. Her family moved to Dalton and she graduated from Dalton High School in 1935. She attended Bessie Tift College in Forsyth and the University of Richmond in Virginia.

She married Glenn C. Price in 1938 and moved from Dalton in 1939. She retired at age 55 after 20 years of service with various U.S. governmental agencies, including the National Park Service. Mary Belle and Glenn raised cattle near his old homeplace at Whites Mill, Va., until his death in 1994.

A successful businessman with Unisys, Glenn Price had become active in the effort to return the American Chestnut tree to eastern forests. The Prices set out to buy a farm for the American Chestnut Foundation to use to grow trees. Before he could follow up with their plans, Glenn Price became sick. Prior to his death, he requested that his wife use his money to benefit the foundation.

In 1995, Mary Belle Price donated funds to purchase a 93-acre farm in Meadowview, Va., for the American Chestnut Foundation. In June l998, the farm was dedicated as the Glenn C. Price Research Farm.

When Mary Belle Price moved back to Dalton in 2004, she was part of a group helping put together a Georgia chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. Marshall Case, foundation president, put Don Davis of Dalton State College in touch with Mary Belle. The two, along with her niece, Dianne Smith, and Dianne’s husband Jerry, made plans for the first organizational meeting on Fort Mountain in July 2004.

Membership grew from 80 to 200 in the first few months, making it the fastest state organization to grow to official chapter status.

        

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