Former ANLA president presented with ANLA Hall of Fame Award

Hours after stepping down from two years as president of the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA), Robert “Bob” Lyons was presented with the ANLA Hall of Fame Award. This award is the highest honor that ANLA can bestow on one of its members in recognition of a career of service to its industry, community and family, and to the association.

“If I had an hour I couldn’t list his full accomplishments and service to the nursery and landscape industry. In a day I could not get through the many lives he has touched and careers he has influenced,” said ANLA Executive Vice President Bob Doilbois, who presented the award, in a recent press release.

Lyons is president of Sunleaf Nursery LLP, a wholesale grower specializing in shade and flowering trees, located in Madison, Ohio. After graduating from The Ohio State University, Bob began his career teaching vocational horticulture in Cleveland. He then joined the J Frank Schmidt and Son Co., followed by nearly a decade as Vice President of Production for Cole Nursery Co./American Garden Products. Bob and his wife Carol founded Sunleaf Nursery LLP in 1982.

Bob is the first person to serve a two-year term as president of the ANLA since 1944. He has also served as president of the Lake County Nurseryman’s Association, the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association, the Horticultural Research Association, the nursery and landscape industry’s national research endowment, and the Wholesale Nursery Growers of America, a division of ANLA.

The letters of nomination for Bob Lyons describe his depth of character, integrity, and devoted love for the nursery and landscape industry and the. One letter said, “I don’t think my business would be as successful as it is today if I had not known Bob.”