 
Davey: Father of Tree Surgery
John Davey, of Kent, became the "Father of Tree
Surgery" when he established the Davey Institute of Tree Surgery.
"Tree surgery" is the imaginative name
for providing care that saves the lives or improves the looks of
ornamental trees and shrubs. Trees catch diseases, get injured in storms
and accidents, develop decayed spots, and encounter other health glitches.
"Tree surgeons," specialists in tree care, are their doctors. Tree
surgeons apply medicine, splints, braces, fill cavities, prune, top, trim,
fertilize, and tend to trees in other ways.
 John Davey (1846-1923), of
Kent, Ohio,
invented this occupation from scratch after immigrating to the United States
from England in 1870. In 1909 Davey and his son, Martin, founded the Davey Tree
Expert Company. Martin later was elected mayor of Kent, Governor of Ohio, and a
member of the U. S. Congress. Father and son also opened a school in Kent, the
Davey Institute of Tree Surgery, that was the nation’s first to teach scientific
principles of tree care. Those steps planted the seeds of the modern company,
whose name is synonymous with tree surgery almost everywhere.
In 2002, the Davey
Tree Expert Company’s branches in 43 U. S. states and 6 Canadian provinces sold
$320 million worth of services. Davey tree surgeons do everything from battling
insects chewing the leaves in Aunt Emma’s backyard in Peoria to tending golf
courses to overseeing the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery outside
Washington, DC. These tree surgeons are even into transplants, often called upon
to move big, valuable trees to new locations. The company’s work is so good that
it has few competitors. Over the years, Ohio’s gift of scientific tree care has
assured the good health and good looks of millions of trees and shrubs.
A lot of hard work and personal sacrifice lays
behind that achievement. John Davey worked long hours in low-paying jobs and sunk
deep into debt while establishing tree surgery as a new occupation. People, of
course, had cared for ornamental and fruit trees for thousands of years. But
John Davey put tree care on a scientific foundation. To existing knowledge that
accumulated over the centuries, Davey added his own personal observations. He
wrote everything down in a book, a classic entitled "The Planting and Care of
Trees" published in 1923. It made the knowledge available to everyone.
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