Board of Directors

Larry Black - President
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Larry was with the Orange County Fire Department for over 35 years serving his community with his bravery and compassion. Now he spends his time with his family and taking meticulous care of his amazing garden.
Michael McGuire - Vice President
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I worked in the California Department of Developmental Services for 30+ years, retiring as a healthcare Program Director. His son got him interested in palm trees and Micheal took it to a new level creating his own paradise in his backyard.
Kathy Van Twist - Treasurer
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Kathy loves to get everything in its place and just loves to make sure all the numbers are in order for the Palm Society. She graciously volunteered to be our treasurer.  

Don  “Kona” Merhaut - Secretary

Kona is a horticulturist and plant nutritionist at the University of California.  In his spare time, he also is a baker and triathlete.  However, horticulture has been his lifelong passion.

Don Martin - Immediate Past President
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Mark Riedler
Membership Chair
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I became interested in palms through my good buddy, Bob Burtscher. I love the tropical look and all the various plants that go with that look. Our Palm Society is a great way to meet very interesting people and a wonderful opportunity to see amazing gardens.

Josh Allen - San Diego County Chair
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Josh spent years in marketing until he and his wife visited Costa Rica when he was bitten by the exotic plant bug. One visit to Hawaii and he was 100% hooked. We started Fairview Nursery in 2012 and it quickly became known as the “go-to” nursery for newly introduced palm species, Cycads, Aloes, Agaves, and many other rare plants.
 - LA County Chair
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(position available)
David Bleistein - Member at Large
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Dave is an attorney with 25 years' experience, as well as a past president of the PSSC, and former board member of the International Palm Society. Dave has a half acre palm jungle on a southward slope in northern Orange County for 21 years, and has managed not to kill on the order of 100+ species of palms. Over the years he's learned what NOT to do as much as what to do. He is also a fountain of information on palm trees!
Linda Opgenorth - Member at Large
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I originally grew up in Hawaii and I always loved plants. I moved to Fallbrook in 1991 with my husband and our two little boys.  We moved into a small house near town with a small yard. We found out fairly quickly though that our yard wasn't big enough for all our plants, especially palms. In 2002, we moved to a larger property with hardly any plants on it. That gave us the opportunity to build a larger garden with many palms as well as other plants.

Don Tollefson - Member at Large
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Patti Newton - Member at Large
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Patti, a graphic designer, has worked at & for Walt Disney Imagineering designing signage for their theme parks all over the world for over 35 years. She now has her own company, Elephants on the Wall where she designs and produces Paint-by-Number wall murals for kids and adults. www.elephantsonthewall.com
She and her husband have always loved visiting tropical places for their vacations and decided that they would recreate that feeling in their backyard. With the help of their two neighbors, who were Palm Society members, they learned all about what the Palm Society society had to offer and the rest is history.

Alex Quintana - Member at Large/Webmaster

Alex Quintana is originally from Miami, Florida, relocated to the Coachella Valley in 2018 with his husband Alan and resides in Palm Springs, California. Alex is a Master Gardener with University of California Riverside and frequently volunteers in local community activity. He is an avid gardener and collector of succulents, agaves and exotic palms. Alex is also a skilled landscape designer by night and holds an engineering management position with Verizon.

Once he relocated to the desert, Alex wondered if there were other like-minded people obsessed with palms as he was. A simple google search connected him with the PSSC and he immediately joined the board as their webmaster. Alex and his partner are very involved in Mid Century architecture, design and landscaping and have their own business; alexanderdesertdesigns.com. Their home has been featured in Atomic Magazine and they have participated in numerous midcentury home tours for the area, including ModernismWeek.