Bob Pries

Gold Medal awarded 2018

Awarded Distinguished Service Award 2013

• 1980 Joined Iris Society
• President Jeffco Iris society
• Impressed by the book "The Vanishing Garden" Started the first National Collection of Dwarf Irises (500 cultivars) for Dwarf Iris Society.
• 1988 As treasurer of SIGNA devised Scheme to sell shares in a collecting trip to China.Subsequently Jim Waddick traveled to China in 1989 bringong back 16 new species and subsequently writing "The Iris Of China"
• Chaired March 1995 Species Symposium in St. Louis
• Proposed Spec-X and Species awards at 1995 fall board meeting/ New classifications accepted
• 1999 Published First SIGNA Checklist
• 2004 Created and Published 3rd. Revised edition SIGNA Checklist of Species Irises
• Published the Eric Nies Chronicle
• 2005 Created and Published Spuria Checklist (first illustrated Checklist)
• 2005 Late summer stepped into a position on the board of directors to fill remaining 2 years of Bill Mull's term.
• Fall 2007 as PR-committee chair proposed the Iris Encyclopedia, the AIS Wiki
• Started AIS Facebook Page
• Started Monthly online newsletter "News & Notes" with help of Wayne Messer