When I first met Dr. Earl L. Core, he was then Curator of the West Virginia University Herbarium and teacher of Botany at West Virginia University. What a gem to know! When I had my first class with him, I felt I had known him for years. He loved his students and was always helping them with their problems. His field trips were enlightening. What he could show us in the out-of-doors on our field trips, let us know that West Virginia is a state made up of all types of gardens. He gave us a desire to know what was growing in any area we explored. He never used a language that we could not understand. When he came to a new scientific term, he explained its meaning.