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Mollie Jean Messimer, 71, an environmental educator who helped launch the Boxerwood Gardens education program and the Rockbridge Conservation communitywide cleanup, died Thursday, Jan. 25, in Lewisburg, W.Va., where she had lived in recent years.
Messimer was a co-founder of the Boxerwood Education Association, becoming the garden’s first education steward. She attracted community volunteers to Boxerwood to teach various subjects, including birding. She organized a grant-funded Boxerwood-to-the-Bay trip to the Chesapeake Bay for local educators to learn about the importance of protecting our rivers and streams.
“Mollie’s passion for education, along with her commitment to the environment, led her to join a team of three who founded the Boxerwood Education Association in Lexington,” said Hunter Mohring, one of the other co-founders, along with Karen “KB” Bailey. Messimer, she said, “served as the first education director in its mission to educate and inspire people of all ages to become environmentally responsible stewards of the Earth.”
Messimer worked for the Rockbridge Area Conservation Council (now Rockbridge Conservation) as its second executive director. She created and led RACC’s annual community roadside pickup for many years. The communitywide cleanup is still going strong, and is scheduled to take place again this year in late March.
She taught fourth grade for one year at Waddell Elementary School, bringing her students outdoors to Woods Creek Park for environmental observations and projects. She encouraged her students to write letters calling for the city to install dog waste pet stations along Woods Creek Trail. The campaign was a success and the city’s parks are more appealing and hygienic as a result.
During her time with Boxerwood, Messimer played a key role in the Woods Creek Restoration Project, making it a community and educational initiative. The idea was to plant watertolerant species along the banks, to shade and filter the water and reduce flooding. According to Bill Blatter, Lexington city planner at the time who obtained a grant for the project, the undertaking “changed our approach to streamside management.”
Messimer retired after a 40-year career in education. She taught at all levels, from kindergarten through Ph.D., and served as a licensed professional counselor at colleges in Virginia, including Sweet Briar College, Southern Seminary and Virginia Military Institute, and at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg. She started and directed the Talent Search program at then-Dabney S. Lancaster Community College.
Her educational attainments included a doctorate in counselor education and a master’s in reading education from the University of Virginia, an Education Specialist degree in counseling psychology from James Madison University and a bachelor’s degree in humanities/elementary education from Colorado College.
She served in the Peace Corps in Kuwait. Her love of travel and adventure brought her to such places as Antarctica, Australia, Belize, Ecuador, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and Zimbabwe.
It was on her last overseas trip to Iceland that she fell in love with the national dog of Iceland. She became an advocate and ambassador for Icelandic Sheepdogs, entering the show ring with many of her dogs as an owner-handler. Her dogs won many titles and championships at numerous shows, including at the AKC National Championship and Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
Her love of vintage treasure hunting and environmental consciousness inspired her to begin a hobby which became a secondhand business in antique mall booths. She was the owner of Patina in Lewisburg. She had also operated a booth at the Lexington Antiques Mall and later at Duke’s.
Her survivors include her partner, Chris Ide, his son Ben and her brother Pete Messimer.
Wallace & Wallace Funeral Home in Lewisburg is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences can be made at www.WallaceandWallaceFH. com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Greenbrier County Humane Society, 151 Holiday Lane, Lewisburg, WV, 24901.
A memorial event is planned that will take place at Boxerwood in the spring.
