Leah W. Garlotte

1957 - 2004

Let me begin by reciting a poem that I sent to Leah last year on her birthday, November 1st, All Saints Day. The title is

October

I think of you often
When I turn my face towards the woods,
legs carrying me inexorably to the well-worn path.

Naked in all of its glory
my old friend the Earth welcomes me
with lazy sensuousity.

My feet palpate the familiar flanks
as my toes insinuate themselves into hidden crevices,
Until at last I come to the crest of a hill,
Sheathed in its sunny breastplate.

Enfolding me, I tarry in its warmth,
Lost in thoughts of you.

            Leah Woods Garlotte was a child of this great green Earth. Her radiance shone on many people. The presence of each and every one of us here is a powerful testament to that shining radiance – one that supplied both illumination and warm comfort.
            We are gathered here today to grieve her loss, to celebrate her existence and accomplishments, to continue to carry on a conversation with her, about her, for her.
            As I was talking recently to my friend Catherine Gray, she mused that she had the feeling that Leah had another great adventure lying before her – such as moving out West, or organizing another community to befriend the Earth, or something completely different. Catherine, a former next-door neighbor to Leah, remains stunned and disconsolate that such a vital being is no longer with us. That Leah took her next long journey through the terrible landscape of cancer and physical disability, accompanied only by the loving circle of her intimate friends and family.

            It has been almost exactly five years since I met Leah. I was recruited to the fundraising board of Hilltop Educational Foundation in November 1999, and at my first meeting I was immediately enchanted by Leah, Hilltop’s Director. Her open face and expressive eyes, framed by long and wavy auburn hair, was animated by an expressive voice that conveyed earnestness, playfulness, and gravity in equal measure. I soon found out that good things for the community were happening at Hilltop, influenced by its brilliant leader. Leah poured her heart and soul into serving the commonwealth through the vehicle of Hilltop Garden & Nature Center, which was only the latest site of her manifold activities on behalf of environmental literacy and sustainability. Time does not permit me to go into the details of Leah’s work at Hilltop and the resulting blossoming of the venerable garden under her watchful care. But I do want to tell a brief story.
            Few local residents can forget the misguided proposal to erect another Indiana University golf course, a plan that would have altered and privatized one-sixth of the campus acreage to benefit a select few.  In the fall of 1999, a coalition of students, faculty, and townspeople formed an opposition group, the Protect Griffy Alliance, or PGA, to block the plan. Leah played an essential role in what we soon started calling the “golf war” – but one that is not very well known. Although the IU Trustees held open hearings on the plan which revealed widespread opposition, and about a third of the IU faculty signed a protest petition in the space of a few days, the IU administration was still supporting the proposal when the students left for winter break. Activists in the PGA and elsewhere hit on the idea for a benefit concert to raise money for the continuing fight. Leah emerged as the leader, the nerve center for the organization of the concert. Drawing on her wide acquaintance with local artists and musicians, Leah got an all-star musical lineup (Carrie Newcomer, Malcolm Dalglish, the Dew Daddies were among them), arranged the venue (the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre), persuaded graphic artist Ned Shaw to create a cool poster, generated publicity, and coordinated a myriad of logistical details, all within a month. The concert took place in mid-January 2000 and was an electrifying success. People jammed the old theatre, united in their opposition to the new golf course and publicly expressing their solidarity with a beloved piece of their home ground. Buttons proclaiming “I Love Griffy” adorned shirts, jackets, hats, and backpacks.
            After the concert, I was privileged to be a part of the small group surrounding Leah that adjourned to a nearby pub to count out the proceeds. Her eyes were dancing as the total kept climbing. Over 5,000 dollars! We toasted again and again and felt the tide turning in our favor. The tide was indeed turning, and the IU administration dropped the golf course plan less than a week later.  The Protect Griffy Alliance’s treasury was bulging, and it disbursed the concert funds to various local environmental causes.
            For me it was an exhilarating introduction to Leah, and the experience created a special bond between us. Her excitement, her energy, her determination, and her humanity were all highlighted during that eventful time.

            Five years passed much too quickly. Last August Catherine and I saw Leah, for what became the last time, at a screening of Fahrenheit 9/11. We were delighted at the chance meeting and were glad that she looked so well even as the cancer ravaged her. Her voice was clear and strong, possessing a tone of righteous indignation and moral outrage at the presidential leadership that had gotten the country enmeshed in a destructive war in Iraq. Leah’s concern over human rights, social justice, and environmental quality stayed with her right to the end.
            George Sand once said “there is only one true happiness in life: to love and be loved.” How lucky we all are in knowing and loving Leah. And that knowledge and love she returned in abundant measure. Now she resides in our community of memory and hope.

Remarks for Leah Woods Garlotte Memorial Service, 5 December 2004, 3:30pm, Unitarian Universalist Church, Bloomington, Indiana.

Hilltop Garden Sculpture Dedication

We are here today to honor the memory of Hilltop Director Leah Garlotte – a great friend to green nature, a colleague in education, and a wonderful human being. As a practicing historian, I can’t help but think of the first Hilltop Director, Barbara Shaluca. Her uncommon, stubborn vision of a youth garden and nature center, serving the children and the community of Bloomington, was realized at the opening of Hilltop in 1948, almost a decade before Leah was born. But that opening was only the start of endless seasons of struggle to keep the garden flourishing. It was not that flowers and vegetables would not grow on this hilltop – they did in abundance. And generations of children came, learned, and went out into the world. No, the problem was bureaucratic inertia and human frailty, not in the soil’s fertility or the kid’s enthusiasm.

Leah, as Hilltop Director for five years, faced many challenges to the health of the program – issues of finance and personnel, maintaining the tradition of community involvement, and university politics. She met each challenge with dignity, courage, and an open heart. For she had a vision of Hilltop as an educational and cultural resource that could fill diverse needs in the community. She strove to realize that vision through cultivating a rich and diverse program, where students of all ages could come and learn together about gardening, nature, and themselves. Although Leah and Barbara had quite different and distinctive personalities, I think this passion for the green world streamed through both of them.

Although my heart remains heavy at Leah’s untimely passing, I rejoice in this opportunity to commemorate her life and work by the dedication of this wonderful piece of art and utilitarian garden amenity.

I want to quote some lines from the ancient wise book, the Tao Te Ching:

The best way to live is to be like water
For water benefits all things and goes against none of them

Nothing in this world is as soft and yielding as water
Yet for attacking the hard and strong none can triumph so easily
It is weak, yet none can equal it
It is soft, yet none can damage it
It is yielding, yet none can wear it away

Leah left her indelible mark on my heart and many others. Now her name will be forever associated with this special garden at Hilltop. It is perfectly appropriate to dedicate this vessel of life-giving water in her honor, because Leah used her life as a vessel, bestowing vitality and love through all of her days.

Remarks for dedication of the limestone sculpture at the enabling garden in Hilltop Garden & Nature Center in memory of Leah Garlotte on 13 May 2006.