Heralding spring, thousands of green iris blades emerged at Cooley’s Gardens; barely in time to bid their patriarch farewell. Richard C. Ernst, president, manager and hybridizer of the major bearded iris growing operation, passed away unexpectedly March 2, 2011, after a brief illness. He was 57.
By Linda Whitmore Richard “Rick” Ernst has done a great deal of genealogical study about the Cooley family – his mother’s ancestors – tracing them back to the 1740s in Virginia. Like other American pioneers, subsequent generations of Cooleys moved westward. Some were among Silverton’s early settlers and through the years the name Cooley has become world renowned for the […]
