National Bonsai Foundation Introduces 2020-21 Board of Directors

National Bonsai Foundation Introduces 2020-21 Board of Directors

We are thrilled to announce the National Bonsai Foundation 2020-21 Board of Directors! James Hughes is our new Board Chair. Read about his curatorship at the Museum and his background in our August blog posts. Marybel Balendonck, one of the founding NBF directors, will retain her position as vice president. 

We also have some new faces in officer positions. Help us welcome Chair-Elect Daniel Angelucci and Secretary/Treasurer James Brant. 

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Daniel Angelucci, Chair-Elect

Daniel Angelucci will serve as the NBF chair-elect for two years, followed by a two-year term as the NBF board chair. Angelucci has been practicing bonsai for 36 years. 

He was first introduced to the art when he lived in Flint, Michigan, and came across a bonsai demonstration at a local mall. Angelucci was inspired to buy books about bonsai to learn more. 

In 2008, his interest in bonsai took off after he joined the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society and the Four Seasons Bonsai Club of Michigan. The clubs exposed him to nationally recognized groups, like the American Bonsai Society (ABS), and bonsai artists like Jack Wikle and former NBF Co-President and Museum Curator Jack Sustic. 

Angelucci first joined the NBF board as a member in 2018. He decided to apply for the chair-elect officer position to contribute a varying skill set to the operations in support of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.

“It seemed to me that about 90 percent of the people who were on the board of the Foundation were bonsai professionals in some form or another,” he said. “I’m mediocre in bonsai art at best, but I thought I might have something to offer with regard to the time and talent I accrued in my financial and business backgrounds.” 

Now fully retired, Angelucci brings to the NBF board an extensive background in wealth management and investment strategy, with educational certificates from Duke, Harvard, Yale, Wharton and University of California, Berkeley.

He is a longtime friend of the arts, serving on the Board of Directors of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and holding memberships in NBF, ABS, the Ann Arbor bonsai society and Pittsburgh Bonsai Society. 

As chair-elect, Angelucci will focus on forging relationships with U.S. bonsai professionals and broadening the awareness of the Museum to maintain its significance as a U.S. national treasure. 

“There’s so much history in the original gift that the Japanese gave to the United States and in trees like the Yamaki pine, which survived the Hiroshima bombing,” he said. “It would be a travesty if we were not able to maintain the health of trees like that.” 

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James Brant, Secretary/Treasurer

James Brant will serve as Secretary/Treasurer for two years, then step into the full position of Secretary/Treasurer for two more. 

Brant taught various levels of education, from elementary school to adult evening school, for 31 years in Pennsylvania, retiring in 1999. He became involved with bonsai in the 70s, starting classes at Rosade Bonsai Studio in 1978. 

Brant has served several positions in the Pennsylvania and MidAtlantic bonsai societies and is a member of the Bonsai Society of the Lehigh Valley, Second Sunday Study Group and Delaware Valley Bonsai Study Group. He has served as coordinator for the Delaware group and Bonsai Kaido Ken Shu Kai Study Group. 

Brant has also instructed children’s bonsai classes and presented programs on wintering and bonsai display. He received the 2002 Bonsai Clubs International Meritorious Service Award. 

He was honored and pleased to join the board after being asked to fill in for a departing member. Before the joint Secretary/Treasurer position was created this year, Brant served solely as the NBF treasurer and has been a board member since 2005. 

Brant said some of his most memorable moments from the last 15 years at NBF were the compilation and publishing of Bonsai Master John Naka’s sketchbook, which you can find on our website, and the renovation of the Japanese exhibit.

In his new position, Brant hopes to provide NBF with a continuity of service and contribute to the Board’s goals in as many ways possible. 

“My wife Linda and I have met some truly wonderful people, and traveled to some remarkable places to spread the fellowship of bonsai,” he said. “Bonsai – and, to a degree, NBF – is a hobby that has given my life meaning, serenity, fellowship, and learning all rolled into one.” 

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Here is our full 2020-21 Board of Directors. We can’t wait to see what this year will bring under the stewardship of these devoted individuals!

OFFICERS

• James Hughes (‘22) - University Park, MD, Chair of the Board

• Daniel Angelucci (‘22) - Harrison Township, MI, Chair-Elect of the Board

• James Brant (‘22) - Royersford, Pennsylvania, Secretary/Treasurer

• Marybel Balendonck (’23) - Fullerton, California, Vice President

DIRECTORS

• Ross Campbell (‘23) – Silver Spring, MD

• Milton Chang, PhD (‘23) – Los Altos Hill, CA

• Christopher Cochrane ('22) – Glen Allen, Virginia

• Julie Crudele ('22) – Annapolis, Maryland

• Edward Fabian, ('21) – Niceville, Florida

• Joseph Gutierrez, MD, FACS ('21) – McLean, Virginia

• Karen Harkaway, MD (‘21) – Mount Holly, New Jersey

• Richard Kahn, PhD (‘22) – Alexandria, VA

• Cheryl Manning ('21) – Los Angeles, California

• Ann McClellan ('21) – Washington, DC

• Carl Morimoto, PhD (‘21) – San Jose, CA

• Pauline Muth ('21) – West Charlton, NY

• Doug Paul (‘21) – Kennett Square, PA

• Glenn Reusch (’21) – Rochelle, Virginia

• Deborah Rose, PhD (’22) – Beltsville, Maryland

• Stephen Voss ('21) – Washington, DC

EX-OFFICIO

• Charles Croft – President, Potomac Bonsai Association

• Mark Fields – President, American Bonsai Society

ICYMI: We profiled our recently retired board members! Reflect on their legacies with us here. 

NBF Welcomes Jim Hughes as Incoming Chair

Jim Hughes

The National Bonsai Foundation is pleased to announce Jim Hughes as our new Chair of the Board. 

Hughes oversaw the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum as curator from 2005 to 2008. He has served as an NBF board member since 2009 – briefly holding the treasurer position – and is a member of many other bonsai groups, including the Minnesota Bonsai Society, Brookside Bonsai Society and the Potomac Bonsai Association.

He has contributed greatly to the Museum in the past, leading the fundraising efforts for the renovation of the Japanese Pavilion, taking care of our prized collections, holding bonsai demonstrations and writing articles for our former communication outlet: the NBF Bulletin. Hughes has also represented NBF on the Friends of the National Arboretum (FONA) board for three years.

Hughes was born in Minnesota and graduated from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota with an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in education. He taught for 10 years at various high schools in the Minneapolis suburbs before returning to school to study computer programming.

Hughes first came to Washington, D.C. in 1996 and soon became a volunteer at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. In 2002, he was chosen for the assistant curator position working under Jack Sustic, leading him to assume the curator position three years later.

 Hughes was a key member of the planning committee for the symposium on The Art of Chinese Penjing sponsored by the U.S. National Arboretum and NBF. He studied rock and tree penjing and the origins of bonsai at the Shanghai Botanical Garden.

NBF welcomes Hughes as the new head of the Foundation and looks forward to many years of collaboration and support for the Museum with the U.S. National Arboretum and the collections of beautiful bonsai and penjing.

WE INVITE YOU TO COMMENT BELOW TO WELCOME JIM!

NBF Co-Presidents to Step Down After Two Years of Joint Leadership

As of August 20, Jack Sustic and Felix Laughlin will be leaving their roles as co-presidents of the National Bonsai Foundation.

Jack Sustic

Felix Laughlin

Laughlin has been an inspiring and dedicated member of the bonsai community. He was one of six founders who formed NBF in 1982 and became president in 1996, with Sustic joining as co-president in 2018.

Since NBF’s founding, the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum has become a world-renowned center for the art of bonsai, penjing and related art forms. During that period, the Museum has expanded from a single pavilion displaying the 53 bonsai given in 1976 to the American people by Japan as Bicentennial Gift to include multiple pavilions, exhibition buildings and courtyards presenting North American bonsai, Chinese penjing, tropical bonsai, and viewing stones.

Sustic began his bonsai career as a Museum intern in 1996. He then served as curator twice – from 2001 to 2005 and 2008 to 2016 – and has served on the NBF Board of Directors for 19 years. Sustic has spent many long hours caring for some of the most prized parts of our collections, including the Yamaki pine. 

 As co-presidents, Sustic and Laughlin have led many projects and improvements to both the Museum and NBF operations. Under their supervision, the Museum was voted “Best Place To Take An Out-Of-Towner” and “Best Museum Off The National Mall” in multiple Washington City Paper Best of D.C. polls.

 The pair have both demonstrated their personal commitment to the spread of bonsai appreciation through their various leadership positions in national and global organizations, like the World Bonsai Friendship Federation and WBFF’s North American regional representative organization, the North American Bonsai Federation.

Laughlin served as chairman of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation from 2001 to 2005, and organized the 5th World Bonsai Convention held in Washington, D.C. in 2005. Sustic served as the chairman of that successful World Bonsai Convention. Sustic is currently serving as the North American Bonsai Federation president and a WBFF director.

Sustic and Laughlin have been driving forces of peace and friendship who amplify the voices of bonsai novices and artists around the world and helped pave the way for bonsai care and appreciation for years to come. NBF is incredibly grateful for the co-presidents’ leadership and dedication to the Museum and the art of bonsai.

Through their combined work in the bonsai world, Sustic and Laughlin have instilled a lasting legacy of goodwill and love for bonsai. NBF wishes the two the best in their endeavors and thanks them for being an asset in the world of bonsai.

Learn more about NBF’s new leadership here.

WE INVITE YOU TO LEAVE A MESSAGE ABOUT FELIX AND/OR JACK BELOW!