Class trees take root in a tradition that spans generations

Roy Powell ’72 dropped a penny into the soil next to the root ball of a loblolly pine being planted 30 yards from Cheatham Hall on April 23, continuing his traditional role in the planting of a tree commemorating a graduating class from the College of Natural Resources and Environment. 

Powell, Mark Stockwell ’72, and Ollie Kitchens ’72 attend the tree planting each year, honoring their own class by adding a penny minted in 1972 to the large hole dug for the tree's root ball.

The tree tradition started with the Class of 1972, but it did not take root as an annual event until the mid-1980s. To date, 41 trees have been planted to honor graduating classes, 36 of them in close proximity to Cheatham Hall and five more on the lawn of the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech.

Professor John Seiler, who recently retired, and Associate Professor Eric Wiseman '96, M.S. '01 of the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation maintain a list of trees planted for graduating classes on a website. Planting dates are known for more recent trees, but dates for those planted before 1995 are best guesses.

“Between 1986 and 1994 there’s a scarlet oak, Douglas fir, Carolina silverbell, and silver maple,” Seiler said. “I saw them all [being planted], but the dates are approximate.”

The original class tree, a blue spruce — planted in 1972 by Powell, Stockwell, Kitchens, their classmates, and forestry faculty members — was removed for the construction of Latham Hall, as were trees planted in 1976 and 1986. The sourwood tree from the Class of 1998 was destroyed by construction vehicle. New sewer lines led to the removal of the cherrybark oak planted in 2002. A crane damaged an American Hornbeam planted in 1997, but that tree survived, scarred but unbroken.

A growing tradition

For four decades the tree planting was held immediately following graduation, which took place in Burruss Hall. With no other reason to return to Cheatham Hall, participation was light but those who participated were enthusiastic.

“We’d be in Burruss and the dean would announce there was going to be the planting and give a time,” Seiler said. “Everybody had shovels. Grandmas, grandpas, and parents took pictures with the tree because they were all down here for graduation.”

From 2014 through 2018, the college moved its commencement ceremony to the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech. During those years, trees were planted on the center's lawn immediately after the ceremony. The convenience and proximity drew greater attendance from the graduates and guests. Four of those trees are still there, and one was moved.

Since 2019, the tree planting event has been moved forward two to three weeks as the centerpiece of the college's graduation celebration, an annual picnic held for the senior class in the final weeks of spring semester. No longer are graduates wielding shovels while donning caps and gowns, but participation among students is greatly increased. 

Though it was originally an event by and for the forestry majors, the trees now commemorate all the college's graduates for that year. To mark that inclusion, an item relevant to each department is added, like Powell’s penny, to the hole before it’s filled.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation always has a fish to drop in the hole. Institutional memory is hazy where records are sparse, but Seiler believes the inclusion of the fish dates back to at least 2000. 

Tom Crawford, chair of the Department of Geography, adds a map to the hole. This year a small, replica wood pallet was added by Laszlo Horvath from the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials.

A variety of species

Over the years, the diversity of trees around Cheatham Hall increased, thanks to a concerted effort by Seiler to keep from planting the same species repeatedly.

“I started picking species that we didn’t have on campus,” Seiler said. “The Kentucky coffeetree was the first on campus. The Shumard oak may still be the only one. White fir, musclewood, sourwood — some of these weren’t here at all."

Wiseman has held a role in the tree planting since joining the faculty in 2005. He will coordinate future plantings in the wake of Seiler’s retirement and maintain the website cataloguing the trees.

Wiseman sourced some of the trees and worked with the university arborist to pick locations. Wiseman's Class of 1996 planted a white fir tree that now grows outside his office window.

As a graduate student, Wiseman was advised by Seiler. This year, Wiseman added a special dedication to Seiler to the loblolly pine planted for the Class of 2026. Wiseman said the selection of the loblolly was fitting for a professor of dendrology because the loblolly is the most studied species of tree in the world.

Prior to Wiseman joining the faculty, now-retired professor Mike Aust worked to plant and maintain the trees. In the 1970s and 1980s, faculty members Jim Smith and Pete Ferret led the graduation tree project as advisors to Xi Sigma Pi, a national forestry honor society. 

Seiler laughed as he recalled a story about the year there almost wasn’t a tree to plant.

“Jim Smith realized he needed a tree that Saturday morning. He wasn’t on the ball, I guess,” Seiler said. “He went out in the woods behind his house and hand-dug a scarlet oak. It lived and it was beautiful.”

As the grounds around Cheatham Hall become populated with trees, finding room for new ones is more challenging. The university’s Division of Facilities determines the location for the trees with three criteria:

• Close proximity to Cheatham Hall
• Compatible with infrastructure, utilities, and landscape maintenance
• Low likelihood of disruption by capital projects in the foreseeable future

The trees for the Classes of 2023 and 2024 were planted in the lawn behind Seitz Hall, about 80 yards from Cheatham. Because space adjacent to Cheatham is limited, there’s a chance the area near Seitz could become a grove of class trees.

Some of the trees have been sourced from outside growers, including this year’s loblolly pine, while others were grown from cuttings or seeds and acorns by the faculty. Seiler was able to make clones of the well-known American sycamore that stood on the lawn of Henderson Hall, near the university’s Main Street entrance for many decades. He also grew oaks from the acorns of Tree No. 1 in the Old Growth Forest near Lane Stadium, an oak that’s estimated for be over 350 years old and of historical value because it was a meeting place decades before Virginia Tech was founded.