Lorna Wass

MEET THE DIRECTOR Lorna Cowls Wass

Born in Eustis, (Lake County) Florida, when the area was the "Orange Capitol of the World". It was a small, rural town in the thirties, well settled by northerners. I had a spring-fed lake in my back yard, outside the city limits. Cottonmouths and alligators shared this lake but were never a problem.

I grew up with strong interest in water, plants and birds especially. Ross Allen’s Reptile Institute was fascinating to visit but when he sent his daughter to camp in North Carolina where I was a nature specialist one summer, he sent along a huge boa constrictor I had to take care of all summer. The campers all wanted to see it hung around my neck so it could stretch outside it’s cage. I half-way got comfortable with this, but snakes weren’t my very favorite thing. Armadillos were much nicer as camp pets.

My education was spread out between Staunton’s Mary Baldwin College and Florida State University. (Where I first met my future husband when I audited an ornithology class and joined the college bird club.)

I got a scholarship for graduate work (social work) at the University of Chicago. That winter was spent in the college pool getting the Red Cross Water Safety Instructor’s and Advance Swimming Courses under my belt. Later, after three children, I continued to teach and keep both swimming and canoeing instructor’s certificates active until a ridiculous age.

Early years were spent doing professional social work in Florida-adoption and child welfare work. When my children were in school I began a couple of decades of "elementary" volunteer work doing classroom and field trips over two counties.

Somehow I seem to be a glutton for saying "yes" to be on boards. This happened with FODR after being a founder; The Virginia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy; The Virginia Native Plant Society, after being an extended president of The John Clayton Chapter; The Gloucester Red Cross, after a few dozen gallons of blood giving; not just once but many times.

The local V.P.I. extension office has kept me working for a number of years doing educational work. Finally, the Senior Committee for a Community Center for Gloucester county - we’ve been spinning our wheels for more than four years.

Now I do volunteer archaeology for the Virginia Native Plant Society’s project at Windsor in Mathews County. We started this more than a year ago and have upwards of 70,000 artifacts at the home we are reasonably certain was the home of John Clayton; early botanist who was clerk of Gloucester County’s court for 53 years. He lived close enough to the Dragon Run to become quite fascinated with it’s unique flora and fauna. His "Flora Virginica" detailed a life well-committed to colonial botany. Clayton died in December 1773, two years before the American Revolution.

Travel abroad has occupied much of my time, especially in underdeveloped countries where there are so many threatened and endangered species lingering. I just want to become a child again and see it all.