Los Angeles County
Biographies
GEORGE
C. GROENEWEGEN
George C. Groenewegen, propagator to the University
of California at Los Angeles since 1926, is a man of vast experience in
horticulture, gaining thorough knowledge of the science in his native Holland.
Four successive generations of his family have been identified with the nursery
business, and the grandfather of Mr. Groenewegen was the head of the Botanical
Garden in Amsterdam. George C. Groenewegen was born in Amsterdam, March 3,
1872, and was educated in private schools of Holland where particular stress
was laid upon the mastery of arithmetic, languages and penmanship. When still
but a youth he began assisting his father in the nursery business and
subsequently traveled over Europe to augment his knowledge of horticulture and
also to acquaint himself with the language and customs of other peoples. He now
speaks French, German, English and Dutch.
Mr. Groenewegen made two trips to
the United States before settling permanently in this country in 1906. He
remained in the east until 1914, when he came to the Pacific coast and obtained
work in Pasadena in order to gain knowledge of California plant life. It was in
1926 that he was appointed propagator to the University of California at Los
Angeles, a position which he has filled in a highly acceptable manner to the
present time.
When he
began his work here the district surrounding the university site was a vast
barley field, the Stone Canyon road was of dirt and as many as twenty cars were
sometimes stuck in the mud at one time. Mr. Groenewegen grew the seed for the
trees, plants and evergreens which he set out in the university grounds. He
built lath houses to protect the small plants from the sun and had at one time
ninety thousand tress (sic), shrubs, evergreens, etc., of all descriptions to
enhance the beauty of the grounds. He is developing a twelve acre botany garden
for that department of the university. He has planted seeds and cuttings from
all parts of the world in two and one-half inch pots, and this foliage has
grown rapidly in the wonderful California climate, the planting at present keeping
pace with the building program.
In 1898 Mr. Groenewegen was united
in marriage to Beerrendiena Plugge,
a native of Holland, and they are the parents of four children, as follows:
Jacob Cornelius, who is in the service of the Shell Oil Company; Cornelius E.,
a graduate of Stanford University of California and now field secretary for Phi
Gamma Delta; Gladys and Dorothy who are students at the University of
California at Los Angeles. The family residence is at 2460 Euclid avenue in Santa Monica. Mr. Groenewegen became a naturalized
American citizen in 1911 and fraternally is affiliated with the Masons, holding
his membership with South Pasadena Lodge No. 367.
Transcribed By:
Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: California
of the South Vol. II,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
475-476, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Cecelia
M. Setty.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES