Frank H. Rose papers, 1926-1968

Frank Hubert Rose was born in Cherokee County Kansas on April 18, 1886. He attended the University of Oklahoma and the University of Colorado where he studied range management. After graduating from college, Rose worked as a United States Forest Service district ranger in Colorado, Wyoming, and eastern Montana. In 1923, at the age of 37, he was appointed superintendent of the National Bison Range in Moiese, Montana.

In 1930, Rose left the National Bison Range and moved to Missoula, Montana. He lived in the lower Rattlesnake Valley where he owned and operated a native plant nursery and seed collection business titled Northern Rocky Mountain Native Evergreens. As part of his business activities, Rose collected partially processed seeds and whole plants that were then sold to pharmaceutical companies or in the horticulture trade. He travelled throughout the western Montana region to collect native plants including the Lewis and Clark Pass, the Blackfoot River, Packers Meadow, around Dillon, and the Big Hole Valley. In addition to collecting plants to support his business, Rose also created significant personal collections of native plants. Beginning in the 1950s, between 2000 and 2500 of Rose’s specimens were acquired by the University of Montana Herbarium, representing a significant contribution to the Herbarium’s collection of native plant species.

Rose married Alma Brashear Cooper in 1915. The couple had three children, Robert, Rachel, and Hubert. They divorced in 1930. Rose married Louise Ewan, a botany student he had hired to assist in his seed collection activities, in 1951. The married couple collected seeds and plants together, with Louise supplementing their income by teaching poetry at the University of Montana. Frank Rose died in Missoula on December 27, 1969.