ABRAHAM, George 1915-2005

(Doc Abraham)

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born February 8, 1915, in Wayland, NY; died of complications from congestive heart failure January 27, 2005, in Canandaigua, NY. Gardener, radio host, and author. Known to many as "Doc," Abraham and his wife, Katy Abraham, hosted a popular gardening radio program for five decades called The Green Thumb. Studying horticulture at Cornell University, he earned his B.S. in 1939. World War II led him to enlist in the U.S. Army, and he saw action in North Africa before returning home. He married while he was on a short leave in 1942. Abraham resumed a career as a writer for Roy H. Park, Inc., in Ithaca, New York, where he had been hired in 1938. In 1947, he and his wife began their own landscaping business and florist shop called Naples Valley Greenhouses. Their extensive knowledge in horticulture led them to being hired as co-hosts for The Green Thumb, a radio program that first aired on WHAM-Radio in Rochester, New York, in 1952. The couple's upbeat personalities and down-home style quickly endeared them to their audiences, and the show remained popular until its end in 2002, when age and ill health forced both hosts to retire. Beginning in 1968, Abraham also hosted a similar program on Rochester's WOKR-TV. In addition, the Abrahams produced "The Green Thumb," a syndicated column that appeared in over one hundred newspapers, and they penned many books on gardening. Among their coauthored works are Raise Vegetables without a Garden (1974), The Green Thumb Book of Indoor Gardening (1982), and Green Thumb Wisdom (1996). At the time of his death, Abraham had just completed an autobiography, A Bathtub Built for Two, which was published posthumously.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Democrat and Chronicle, January 28, 2005.

Los Angeles Times, February 1, 2005, p. B9.

Washington Post, January 31, 2005, p. B7.

Washington Times, January 30, 2005.