NILES Harvard expert is linked to Valley

The Niles native will appear Wednesday on 'Martha Stewart Living.'
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- The seeds of a Niles upbringing sprouted into a blooming career for one native.
Susan Rossi-Wilcox is the curatorial associate at the botany museum at Harvard University. She is also the resident expert on the glass flowers collection at the university's Museum of Natural History.
Rossi-Wilcox's parents, Thomas and Josephine Rossi, and other relatives still live in Niles.
She and the glass flowers collection will be featured on "Martha Stewart Living" at 10 a.m. Wednesday on WKBN Channel 27.
Here are details: The collection includes 847 life-size models and 3,000 enlarged flowers and plant sections. The collection is undergoing a $2 million restoration and cleaning process that is expected to take about five years.
The flowers were commissioned in 1886 by George Lincoln Goodale, a botany professor at Harvard. He wanted to use the pieces as teaching tools.
Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka of Dresden, Germany, made the flowers.
Biography: A graduate of Niles McKinley High School, Rossi-Wilcox, 50, earned her bachelor's degree in botany from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her master's from Harvard University's extension school. She's been with the museum for about 20 years.
Her duties include researching the collection and preparing for the restoration project.
Rossi-Wilcox said the museum sees about 120,000 visitors annually and the flower collection is the most popular feature.
"That was before we had a PR [public relations] department," she said. "It's just mostly been word-of-mouth."
About Stewart: The segment on the television program was filmed at the same time that Stewart spoke at the university about her business. The exhibit also will be featured in the April 2002 issue of Stewart's magazine, Martha Stewart Living.
"She's impressive," Rossi-Wilcox said of the queen of the domestic arts. "She knows her plants. She's a good conversationalist and asked good questions."
She's not sure how much of the 45 minutes she spent with Stewart will be included on the show.
Rossi-Wilcox returns to her hometown a couple of times each year and plans a trip home for Easter.