Raleigh’s Richard Olsen now director of national arboretum

Among the dozen honorees earlier this month at N.C. State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ alumni awards event was Richard Olsen, the director of the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

Olsen, 40, grew up in North Raleigh, graduated from what was then Wake Forest-Rolesville High School and got his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees from N.C. State. Olsen became director of the arboretum in May. Even before he got that job, Olsen was under consideration for the outstanding alumni award based on his previous work at the arboretum as a plant geneticist and researcher, said John Dole, head of N.C. State’s Department of Horticulture Science.

“He has really contributed to the industry and the science,” Dole said this week.

We chatted briefly with Olsen earlier this month about what led him to become director of the nation’s 446-acre arboretum. Here is an edited version of our conversation:

Q: What sparked your interest in horticulture?

A: Growing up, I was always the one out in the garden. I wouldn’t say I was interested in the plants. I was interested in being helpful.

Q: How did you end up at N.C. State?

A: I didn’t want to stay in North Carolina for school. I went to American University to play soccer and study international relations. I wanted to be a CIA analyst. That didn’t work. I couldn’t speak a foreign language. I transferred to N.C. State. I loved being outdoors. My future father-in-law suggested landscape architecture. I took my first plant class in fall 1995 and never turned back.

Q: How did you first get hired at the national arboretum?

A: They published a job opening in Science magazine for a research geneticist. They needed a tree breeder. The job described me and my research perfectly. There was nothing that didn’t fit. But I didn’t have experience. So I applied for the job. Three individuals wrote letters to the selecting official stating: ‘If you don’t hire this guy, you are crazy. But you have to interview him.’ It was unbeknownst to me. Basically, he knew to look out for me. I wasn’t in the top three. I was in the top five. I was the only one who was not a post-doc. They interviewed me. It was unanimous.

You never know who is watching. You never know who has your back. It’s about relationships.

Q: What was it like being taught by J.C. Raulston? (Raulston was a former N.C. State professor credited with creating the university’s arboretum that was named for him after his death in a car wreck in 1996.)

A: If it comes out that I was at N.C. State, people ask, ‘Did you know J.C. Raulston?’ It’s amazing how many people still ask or have a story about J.C. Raulston.

I was pretty much his last student to get a Ph.D. He was my adviser. People always like to say, ‘J.C. Raulston introduced more plants than anybody.’ What he really did was connect people and plants. It really changed horticulture. It really has had a lasting and profound impact.

Q: What do you like so much about this career?

A: What a great way to make a living. You get to be outside. You get to work with plants. You get to be part of something noble.

Q: What has it been like to become the director?

A: The hardest thing was stepping away. That was the hardest debate: Do I want to leave the bench? Now I get to live vicariously through our scientists up here.

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 6:19 AM with the headline "Raleigh’s Richard Olsen now director of national arboretum."