Harold William"Bill" Kirch, who helped make Hawaii the "vanda and dendrobium capital of the world," died Oct. 26 in Vancouver, Wash., said Ben Kodama of Kodama Orchid Nursery Ltd. Kirch was 85. HAROLD WILLIAM KIRCH / 1916-2002
He nurtured orchids
and an industry
See also: Obituaries
By Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.comIn the 1950s, Kirch organized six growers to export orchids; at the time, they sold orchids locally, said Kodama.
They formed William Kirch Orchids Ltd., which became one of the largest exporters in the United States, said Kodama, the only surviving member of the group. "It was an exciting time," he added.
Born in Los Angeles in 1916, Kirch attended Whittier College and the University of California-Los Angeles. He worked for the L.A. horticultural firm of Armacost & Royston before coming to Hawaii in 1940.
"Kirch was one of the most influential persons to popularize orchid growing in Hawaii, as a hobby and commercially. If it weren't for him, we (the orchid growers) wouldn't have grown so tremendously in the last 30, 40 years," Kodama said.
He described Kirch as a "quiet, humble ... very brilliant man" who wrote the catalogs promoting Hawaii orchids himself. He also encouraged growers to produce more hybrids and different genres to provide customers with something they could not get on the mainland.
Kirch established Woodlawn Nursery in Manoa, where he and his wife, Barbara, lived. He also named after his wife his most famous hybrid, a cattleya, which was always his favorite orchid, Kodama said.
Besides his wife, Kirch is survived by daughter Pamela Ver Chapman of Vancouver, Canada; and sons Michael Henry Kirch of Lucerne, Calif., and Patrick Vinton Kirch of El Sobrante, Calif.
