MARY E. MROSE INTERNATIONAL PAVILION FUND

Mary E. Mrose (1910-2003) was a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of the Massachusetts Teachers School in Salem. She taught history and geography for many years while also pursuing a graduate degree in Geology and studying piano at the New England Conservatory of Music.

During the 1940’s she taught Geology at Boston University and was a Research Assistant in the Harvard University Department of Mineralogy, where she worked on the preparation of a volume in Dana’s System of Mineralogy.

In 1953 she moved to Washington D.C. and joined the U.S. Geological Survey  and was employed there until her retirement in 1983.   During this time she did extensive field work and was an author of over 70 articles on minerals. Because of her great contributions to the field of mineralogy a rare mineral, Mroseite, was named in her honor.  In retirement she worked for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The identification of trees was a life-long avocation for Mary.   In 1991 she began volunteering at the U.S. National Arboretum assisting in the Library. Here she became interested in the art of bonsai and the work of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. In her will she gave to NBF a generous endowment for the International Pavilion that is named in her honor.

Her wish for the Museum was:

That the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum should always maintain a world-class reputation. That it inform and educate those who visit it. That it open visitors minds and help them understand other cultures. And that the Museum inspire people to get into bonsai or, should they not actually do that, help them to develop a love of trees, both large and small.

Contributions to the Mary E. Mrose Fund are used for the improvement of the International Pavilion and for activities held within that Pavilion.