A parade of life experiences

Terry Chambers walked quickly around the Sherman Library & Gardens in

Corona del Mar, showing off -- for what had to be the umpteenth time

-- the hundreds of begonias and ferns he’d pruned and planted over

the years.

“I must’ve remodeled every flower bed in this place twice,” the

30-year volunteer from Newport Beach said.

Chambers, 83, proceeded to the museum, bounded down the stairs and

brushed briskly past the library shelves that house books on local

history and seafaring vessels -- books he’d probably sorted over and

over again. His agility belies the fact that his vision has

deteriorated in recent years.

“These books are great for when people want to research, but I

don’t do any research myself,” he said. “I’m legally blind in both

eyes.”

When you stop to think about just how many dark, memorized miles

he’s walked there, how much unsubsidized work the man put into

maintaining the garden’s beauty, and how many hours he’s put in, you

realize that Chambers commands a presidential respect.

Surely his ear for detail, his million-dollar smile and his

pristine enunciation are qualities he had picked up from working

extensively with his old boss, former President Reagan. Chambers said

the two were close during the former California governor’s rise to

the presidency, and he even coordinated Reagan’s inaugural parade.

The Daily Pilot’s Jeff Benson toured the gardens with Chambers to

talk about volunteerism and his political career.

Can you tell me a little bit about the volunteer efforts going on

at Sherman Library & Gardens?

Volunteerism is so important to be able to sustain a garden like

this. They couldn’t afford to do it with paid labor.

In about 1997, we established a volunteer program, but they’ve

been hiring volunteers for a long time. By coincidence, my mother was

our first volunteer. When she retired, I kind of inherited it. But we

always need more people with sustained interest in this, and we need

people who can come in faithfully at 10 a.m. every Tuesday or

whatever.

How did you become interested in gardening?

I’ve been a gardener for 70 some-odd years. My family lived in the

foothills of Glendora and we had 50 acres of citrus and 100 acres of

hillside. I used to climb up the hillsides and help my grandma’s

gardener. I soon got a job and I must’ve been about 7 or 8 at the

time. I got paid a dime a cup for catching snails. Ultimately, I

graduated to catching gophers and got paid more. Dad found out that

some of the gopher tails I had were kind of stiff. He was mad because

I was recycling gopher tails.

When the stock market crashed, I was doing some marketing work

after high school. But then I worked up a full-time job doing

gardening for big estates and got another job at Pomona College [in

Claremont] mounting botany flowers.

How has this job worked out for you?

I’ve been here since 1970 and only one volunteer has been here

longer -- Joan Carter, the current president of the Volunteer Assn.

I’d always tell people when they start here, “If you consider

yourself a real volunteer, hold up your hand.” Then I’d leave some

people at the gate. So you can see why they got rid of me.

You were fired?

No, I’m only kidding.

What did you do for a living before you came to the Gardens?

After I got out of the Navy, I did some volunteer work for the

Tournament of Roses. I helped put the parade on.

When ABC said they wanted to start covering the parade on

television, I helped with that and got interested in the timing of

the parade. Soon, I was well recognized in assisting with the timing

of televised parades.

When Nixon was elected president, the administration asked the

Tournament of Roses to see if they could send someone over to do the

inaugural parade -- Jan. 20, 1973. It was fun, but I said I never

wanted to be invited to Washington, D.C. again.

What happened then?

Five months later, I started working for Reagan in Sacramento.

They solicited me to work in his sub-cabinet with the Secretary of

Business and Transportation.

Then I volunteered to do Reagan’s inaugural parade. He only had

one. The challenge of inaugural parades is that they never start on

time, since the president is the guest of Congress. They asked me to

put together a one-hour parade for TV, when parades are usually four

to five hours long. But it was live, right in front of the White

House, and it went off without a hitch.

I’m sure you’ve got some great stories to share from all those

presidential parades.

The thing is, those parades were all volunteer too. I did another

parade where [Dwight] Eisenhower was the grand marshal, and as a

volunteer, I had to put on a big reception for him. It turned out to

be a rainy day, and when I took Eisenhower through the crowd to

introduce him to people, one of his aides came up and said,

“Chambers, don’t handle the merchandise.”

I’ve met such marvelous people by volunteering, and my job in

Washington got me very involved in it.

How did your volunteerism in parades and politics contribute to

what you’ve become today here at the gardens?

We get busloads of people coming in here and I always tell people

I’m “Volunteer Emeritus.” The value of being a “Volunteer Emeritus”

is that you can give all kinds of advice and then come back to

complain that people didn’t take it.

Our volunteers give labor on their hands and knees. But I feel the

best volunteers are all [backsides] and elbows.