1. ISA President’s Award
Edwin E. Irish
Presented July 27, 2008
St. Louis, Missouri
Born in Cleveland, Ohio the same year as ISA, and a
graduate of THE Ohio State University, Edwin E
Irish was raised working in the family business that
his father, Charles F. Irish started in 1910. A
member of what has been called America’s Greatest
Generation; Ed served in the US Army during WWII,
landing on France’s Omaha Beach the day after D-
Day.
Following the war, when he was only about 21 years old, Ed joined what was then the National
Shade Tree Conference and the National Arborist Association, organizations his father, Charles
helped found. Today we know these organizations as the International Society of Arboriculture
and the Tree Care Industry Association. Ed eventually served as President of the Ohio Chapter
of the International Shade Tree Conference, now ISA and the National Arborist Association,
now TCIA. He’s been recognized by both organizations with their Awards of Merit.
I was first exposed at an early age to Ed’s dedication and devotion to arboriculture when I would
observe my father on 1 to 2 hour phone calls with his colleague and peer, Ed Irish. Although Ed
moved his family to Detroit, Michigan in 1960 to work with his Aunt, Gertrude Irish Morton, in
a division of his father’s Charles F. Irish Company, these 1-2 hour long phone conversations
allowed Ed and my father to keep in contact and to discuss their arboricultural ideas and
challenges.
I also experienced my father gone out-of-town frequently, working together with Ed, in their
capacity as members of NAA’s Education Committee, which Ed chaired for many, many years.
Their task involved visiting actual work sites to take pictures of various tree care practices,
writing scripts, and combining both components to produce numerous slide-cassette training
programs for the arborist industry. These programs were essentially the first of their kind for our
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2. industry and set the stage for the educational & training programs now offered by the ISA and
TCIA in various other technologically-advanced formats.
I also learned that there were only two kinds of food in Ed Irish’s world – those you could eat
with ketchup (lots of ketchup) and those you didn’t eat.
I’ll never forget when shortly after I first joined my father in our family owned business, my
father told me about the importance of having and keeping close and trusted friendships with
other arborists. The model he gave was Ed Irish, describing him simply and powerfully as a
“good and true friend.” I remain extremely grateful for having been blessed with the friendship
and support which Ed also extended to me. It has been an incredible inspiration to me.
It is a tremendous honor for me to present my 2008 ISA President’s Award to Edwin E. Irish for
his lifelong dedication and devotion to arboriculture; his inspirational leadership of arborists, and
the friendship and support he extended to me and my father before me.
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