John Peter Minton, MD, PhD was an eminent cancer physician, teacher, and researcher, as well as a champion rosarian. He had just turned 56 when he died from injuries related to an auto accident in December 1990. His wife, Janice Minton Wood has donated a rose garden in his name to honor his legacy on campus and his horticultural avocation.
John Peter Minton was a world renowned surgical oncologist at the Ohio State University Hospitals, and a professor of surgery in OSU’s Medical School; his tenure included many teaching and professional appointments including professorships in the departments of Zoology and Microbiology and in the school of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. His innovative leadership in cancer research, education, and prevention set a standard that many have benefited from and few have emulated since. At the time of his death Dr. Minton had been recognized internationally for developing a surgical practice that removed tumors that had spread to the liver from the colon—the practice has become widely known as the Swiss cheese surgery.
Originally, the Memorial Rose Garden was located on Main Campus but was recently moved the Learning Gardens due to construction. To preserve the historical legacy of the original Horticulture Gardens, the new Minton Rose Garden includes remnant bricks from the wall of the original gardens. The new rose garden is not meant to be a re-creation of the former Horticulture Gardens, rather it is meant to capture some of the feeling of the former garden.
The Minton Rose Garden, like Dr. Minton himself, is groundbreaking and experimental. The design of the garden is not that of a traditional rose garden with geometric beds filled exclusively with roses. Rather, the over 30 rose varieties are intermixed with other woody and herbaceous plants. Surrounded by a supporting cast of other plants, the roses shine like the horticultural stars they are.
The varieties of roses chosen for this garden are also a break from tradition, using almost exclusively new varieties of low-maintenance shrub roses. For years, roses have been thought of as disease-ridden and difficult to grow, requiring regular applications of fungicides and other pesticides. However, the roses in this garden are different. None, with the exception of the miniature roses and the roses in the large containers, are treated in any way to control disease. They are fully winter hardy, and require no special protection to survive the winter. These are roses for the average gardener: tough, easy to grow, and prolific in season-long bloom.
The Minton gift also provides a student internship scholarship for a horticulture student to plant and maintain the garden. The first intern was Linda Lucchesi Cody (1994), followed by Brett A. Myers (1995), Robert E. Moore, Jr. (1996), Michael Pfeiffer (1997), and Meagan King (1998). The 1999 intern was Kym Dowdell; the last intern in the former garden. Student internships will continue in the gardens beginning in spring 2007.
The John Peter Minton Memorial Rose Garden was dedicated in the Learning Gardens in front of Howlett Hall on Saturday, June 3, 2006. Janice Minton Wood, her four daughters, and many other family members, colleagues, and friends were present.
John Peter Minton was a Buckeye with a capital B! He was born on campus at the Starling Loving Hospital and attended preschool in Campbell Hall. He completed his high school days on campus at the former University School, and received all of his degrees from Ohio State University: his BS in 1956, his MD in 1960, his Maser of Science in Surgery in 1966, and his PhD in Immunology in 1969. In 1982 students selected him as medical professor of the year. “With a sincere endeavor toward excellence he also has provided us with a role model of a physician who is exceptionally dedicated to the care of his patients, to the enhancement of medical research, and to the education of the public.”
In his undergrad years he marched and played coronet with the Best Damned Band in the Land, and it was at a campus party as an undergrad where he first met his future wife, Janice Gurney. They were married on August 29, 1958 and had four daughters.
John Peter Minton died on his way to campus in December 1990.