Devoted to the Desert Garden
Miyako and Bernie Storch at The Huntington in 2014. | Photo by John Trager.
Bernie and Miyako Storch were wild about The Huntington’s Desert Collections. Avid horticulturists and rare fruit growers, the Santa Barbara couple planned their frequent visits to The Huntington around Los Angeles meetings of botanical interest groups in which they were members.
Traveling in their vintage blue Volkswagen Beetle, they were dedicated Huntington volunteers and were known for bringing a packed lunch with produce from their home garden and spending hours weeding among the succulents in the nursery.
The Storches passed away in 2021, but their legacy and love for The Huntington will live on. The couple’s total bequest to The Huntington, the primary and residual beneficiary of the Storches’ estate, will ultimately total more than $30 million in support of the Botanical Gardens. In recognition of their generosity, the position that oversees the Desert Garden has been named the Bernie and Miyako Storch Curator of the Desert Garden and Collections.
“Their interest in succulents was primarily motivated by an appreciation for the plants’ forms, flowers, and ease of propagation,” says John Trager, longtime curator of the Desert Garden and the first Storch Curator. “They purchased plants at local meetings, and that helped support their hobby. To satisfy their broad gustatory tastes, they also belonged to groups that provided interesting fruits and mushrooms.”
Trager, who first met the couple when he was a teenager, had a friendship with them for nearly four decades. He describes them as down-to-earth. “Miyako was quiet and diligent but had a wry sense of humor,” Trager says. “Bernie was garrulous and outgoing.”
The Storches met in the World War II era, during which Miyako was a nurse and Bernie a mechanic. After marrying, the couple began investing in rental properties, which eventually provided their primary source of income, allowing them to travel the world and visit a new locale once or twice a year, Trager says. Meanwhile, Bernie’s skill as a mechanic kept their beloved Volkswagen finely tuned for trips to The Huntington.
“One of their particular areas of interest was a group of succulents called Stapeliads,” Trager notes. Members of the milkweed family, “Stapeliads are sometimes called the orchids of the succulent world because of their complex pollination mechanisms, which are similar to those of orchids. They also have very interesting flowers.”
In memory of the Storches, and in honor of their exceptional bequest, a plaque will be installed in the Desert Garden.
“The Storches’ deep commitment toward and longtime friendship with The Huntington is such a lovely story,” Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence says. “We look forward to stewarding their magnificent legacy to the benefit of generations of visitors.”
For information about leaving a lasting legacy at The Huntington visit huntington.myplannedgift.org, email Cris Lutz, or call 626-405-2212.