PRE-SITE

Henri Vermeulen [current ABS president], whose Winter 1994 Bonsai Journal article "Taking the Information Highway To The Art Of Bonsai" (pp. 144-145) opened a door.

Scott Eastland and Byrd Preston, whose early personal adventures with the Internet and gracious allowing me to access it weekly using the latter's computer April 1995 through August 1996 planted many seeds.  My first stint with the Internet Bonsai Club was during that time period, also.

Joan McCarter, whose discussion of her HTML class developed the idea that the Phoenix Bonsai Society could eventually make its own Internet web site, wow, just like the big guys. 

J.C. Walker, whose [at the time limited] experience with a personal web site through uswest.net (now qwest.net) in March 1999 led me to sign up with these folks as my ISP.
 

SITE

This site continues to be created with Netscape Composer, courtesy of qwest.net, whose various levels of technical support and customer service have been called upon in the punctuated evolution of this site.

Guy Beaver, whose technical assistance on many early occasions (and some scanned images, specifically those for the first Nursery ads and Postage Stamps) made "simple" technology less complicated for someone more comfortable with just a word processing program.

Amy Snyder, whose suggestion in May 1999 that I shouldn't just sit on a detailed bio for John Naka as an obituary-to-be (newspapers and magazines have them "in the can" ready to go) has led to a much more comprehensive review available right now of our great teacher's ongoing life and works.  The bios for sensei Yoshimura, Kato, and Murata were spinoffs from Naka-san's.

Jim Lewis, whose insistance in October 1999 that there were too many dancing pyramid GIFs -- particularly on the club's menu page --  helped make this site a little easier on the eyes.  (Reviewing my notes I see that he was repeating what Guy had previously pointed out back in May.  Don't want to be too hasty...) 

Joan McCarter, again, whose brief comments during Matsuri 2001 led to the Do I need to join a club to learn bonsai? addition to the FAQ page.

Tomas Melo from Slovakia, whose enthusiasm has supplied me with historical material, images and links which I am adding to various parts of the site.

Riley Diana, whose March 2002 inquiry about the history of dwarf tree collecting in the Chinese culture and specifically about an apparently little-known lucrative small industry which it was to the royal families, resulted in a speculative answer by me which got me thinking about Some of What We Don't Know.  This was an expansion of a much earlier list I had compiled while researching MML.

Finally, among others, Kathy Baran (née Gustafson), and Chris Cochrane, Nona DiDomenico, Ernest Hasan, Maggie Knight, Derrick Price, and Penny Schneck, whose continuing support and enthusiasm for this labor of love further inspires me.

Thank you to all.
 

P.S.  Unless otherwise stated on this or another specific page, all text on this web site was authored, typed, designed, and edited by Robert J. Baran.