George H. Manaker, Temple professor emeritus, has died at 87

George H. Manaker, 87, formerly of Roslyn, professor emeritus at Temple University, retired longtime chair of the Ambler campus’ department of landscape architecture and horticulture, author, lecturer, and mentor, died Tuesday, June 27, of frailty syndrome and complications from multiple sclerosis at Echo Lake senior living center in Malvern.

A lifelong gardener and enthusiastic teacher, Dr. Manaker joined the faculty at Temple’s suburban campus in Ambler in 1962 and helped transform the school’s popular two-year horticulture course into a four-year bachelor’s degree program in 1988. He served as the department chair from 1973 until his retirement in 1997 and oversaw its annual plant sale, award-winning entries in the Philadelphia Flower Show, and other events.

He was active with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and American Society for Horticultural Science, and he advised developers in the creation of interior planting designs at the Willow Grove Mall, Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla., and elsewhere. He lectured to local groups on “success with house plants” and “propagating from seeds and cuttings,” and was quoted often in The Inquirer and other publications.

He mentored hundreds of Temple students who went on to horticulture careers and became a Chester County master gardener and instructor at Longwood Gardens after he retired. “My greatest pleasure has been teaching,” Dr. Manaker told the Times Herald of Norristown when he retired in 1997. “I’ll miss the program, but the students more, the interaction we’ve shared.”

In 1982, after more than 200 students filled Temple’s two-year horticulture course, Dr. Manaker told The Inquirer that indoor landscaping was a “booming business” and that expansion of the school’s program was inevitable. “We’ve had to limit enrollment for the past seven years,” he said. “The field has become so popular. Plantings have moved from the outdoors to the indoors. I know of some corporate buildings that have created literal parks indoors, complete with shrubbery and park benches for cafeterias.”

Dr. Manaker published a 324-page guide to indoor gardening, Interior Plantscapes: Installation, Maintenance and Management, in 1987, and it became a well-reviewed textbook for other educators. He was a member of the Sigma XI scientific research honor society and represented the Ambler campus on Temple’s faculty senate.

He was also a member, one-time vice president, and committee chairman for the Abington school board from 1982 to 1989. He was, his family said in an online tribute, “a renaissance man in his own right.”

George Herbert Manaker was born Dec. 27, 1935, in Rahway, N.J. He grew up in Rahway and Avenel, N.J., and became interested in teaching and gardening as a boy. He earned a bachelor’s degree and doctorate in horticulture from Rutgers University, and a master’s degree from Ohio State University.

He went to high school and college with Veronica Lacanic. They married in 1958 and had daughters Cindy, Susan, and Melissa, and son David. His son died earlier.

In addition to working out strategies to keep the rabbits from eating his lettuce, Dr. Manaker wandered often with his children through the orchards and greenhouses at the Temple campus in Ambler. “The tropical greenhouse was my favorite,” said his daughter Cindy Marzullo. “Banana trees and other exotic tropical flowers and plants that I had never seen before filled the space.”

He took his camera or video camera practically everywhere and often asked his family to pose with a unique flower or plant they came upon. “I always thought he was taking a picture of us kids,” Marzullo said. “But much later I learned that we were just there as a size comparison.”

He went to church every Sunday, took his family to Phillies games at Veterans Stadium, and initiated countless summertime trips to the ice cream store. “All he had to say was, ‘I feel like a sundae,’ and we all raced for the car,” said his daughter Melissa Waetjen.

Dr. Manaker and his wife traveled often and lived in Ambler, Roslyn, West Chester, and Malvern. He doted on his grandchildren, and his daughter, Susan Vestri, said: “I can’t remember a concert or school event he did not attend. He was the best grandpa.”

He planned annual family vacations carefully and usually made sure they included a stop at an arboretum or botanical garden. Marzullo has her own garden and greenhouses these days and said: “I think of my dad every time I am with my plants.”

Vestri said: “We were so lucky to have him for a dad.”

In addition to his wife and children, Dr. Manaker is survived by three grandchildren, a great-grandson, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

Services were Friday, July 7.

Donations in his name may be made to the Temple University Landscape Architecture and Horticulture Scholarship Fund, Institutional Advancement, P.O. Box 2890, New York, N.Y. 10116.