Wednesday, October 22, 2025

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“SUPPORT TAKING ROOT” button below.

Thank you again for all you do to ensure we succeed in our mission to preserve, share, and advance the horticultural and artistic legacy of John Fairey.

Margaret Renkl is the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (2019) and Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South (2021), and The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, (2023), which won the 2024 Southern Book Prize and is a New York Times Bestseller and Reese Witherspoon’s 100th book club pick.

Her most recent book, Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal (October 2024), is a companion to The Comfort of Crows that offers 52 writing prompts and plentiful advice for studying the natural world.

Renkl is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear each Monday. A graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina, she lives in Nashville.

Christopher Knapp serves as Managing Director and Principal at Robertson Stephens, a privately-held national wealth management firm.

A stalwart believer in the importance of active community engagement and civic leadership on the part of corporate citizens, Mr. Knapp serves or has served as board member and/or in some leadership capacity of the Honors College at the University of Houston, BridgeUp at Menninger, Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston Parks Board, Memorial Park Conservancy, Peckerwood Garden Conservation Foundation (now The John Fairey Garden Conservation Foundation), Workshop Houston, Stewardship Council of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, and Advisory Board of Breakthrough Houston. Mr. Knapp received a BA in Art History and History from Williams College.