About Us

 

The John C. Pair Center has served the horticultural industries and consumers of south central Kansas for over a quarter of a century. The center was renamed in June 1998 in honor of Dr. John C. Pair.

The center operated within the Department of Horticulture until 2021. At which time, the John C. Pair center joined other off campus units to form the KSU Eastern Kansas Research-Extension Centers.

 

Biography of John C. Pair

Dr. John C. Pair was the woody ornamental and turfgrass scientist at the Kansas State University Horticulture Research Center (Wichita) from its groundbreaking in 1970 until his death in January of 1998. Dr. Pair’s distinguished career was devoted to the evaluation and improvement of woody ornamental plants and turfgrasses for the southern Great Plains.

Dr. Pair's received a B.S. in Horticulture from New Mexico State University in 1959 and a M.S. from Kansas State University in 1961. He then served the residents of Sedgwick County, KS as horticulture extension agent until 1968. Dr. Pair completed his Ph.D. at Kansas State University in 1971 and subsequently joined the faculty. His first challenge was to establish an applied research program at a still developing research facility just south of Wichita.

Dr. Pair was appointed director of the new facility soon after it began. Under his guidance the research center thrived, and together he and the facility became nationally recognized figures in ornamental horticulture. His career was filled with awards and accolades that culminated in 1998 when Dr. John C. Pair was recognized by his peers and named a Fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science, posthumously.