2004 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE’S DAVID AWARD HONOREE.

HORACE HAGEDORN

Director Emeritus
The Scotts Company
Founder, Miracle-Gro Products

Over 50 years ago, Horace Hagedorn used the profits he made from an NBC radio show to buy into a mail order nursery business. A shrewd advertising man, he knew the worth of branding, and promoted his new line of plant food, called Miracle-Gro. Before long, he and his product began nourishing a more delicate species than plant life; he began nourishing the lives of young people through his heartfelt support and generous donations.

Citing education as his major philanthropic interest, one of Hagedorn's early adventures included his Miracle-Gro Kids - a group of fifth graders from an impoverished neighborhood in Brooklyn. He provided them with tutoring, counseling, weekend recreation, summer camp, and college tuition through the Hagedorn Foundation, over $3 million toward their success.

When Hagedorn heard that college students were learning advertising skills in a simulated ad agency, he donated thousands of dollars in awards to those who developed the best advertising campaigns. And in 1995, he challenged Long Island corporations to donate funds to benefit disadvantaged youth through tutoring, counseling and remedial programs by pledging to match all contributions of $50,000.

In Nassau County, the Hagedorn Family Resource Center in Hempstead, the Hagedorn Little Village School in Seaford, and Hagedorn Hall at Hofstra University all bear their benefactor's name. "I like my name on those buildings," says Hagedorn, who together with his wife Amy have 28 grandchildren. "I want my children to be able to show those buildings to their children, and say, 'This is what my father did.' And hopefully, my children can explain the joys of philanthropy."

His approach to philanthropy is not just check writing, but taking a personal interest and giving time, when possible, to the project. Hagedorn stood proudly among the dignitaries at last October's dedication of Hagedorn Hall, the new home for Hofstra's School of Education and Allied Human Services, which will provide computer science and engineering teachers with access to modern equipment and technology to improve K-12 technology and advanced sciences education.

Hagedorn's business maxim was "to find a need and fill it." Yet in philanthropy, he says, there are plenty of needs, but it's "very hard" to fill them. Hagedorn says he's "disappointed" in today's education system and "impatient" in his quest to be successful in finding ways to fill the need. Therefore, he's "looking for a new system of educating the poor, the underprivileged and the undereducated," and he's "asking questions of various people in education and the television business to find new tools for education." Working with Public Television, Hagedorn envisions "an animated electronic system that will provide illustrations on subject material and help teachers demonstrate how easy it is to speak a foreign language, or do serious math, or learn history or science."

Hagedorn's compassion for children in need has also led him to support Family and Children's Association in their campaign to remake an abandoned parochial school in Hempstead into a new home for their Palmer-Walker Nursery Co-op.

"It's beautiful," remarks Hagedorn, adding that the facility has a professional kitchen in which staff can give children their first taste of what it would be like to work in the food preparation business when they grow up. And he "fell in love with the children," too, at Little Village School, which helps children with developmental disabilities achieve their greatest potential educationally, as well as socially and emotionally. Hagedorn assisted in finding a facility and completing renovations for a brand new school.

"I like having fun doing projects," remarks Hagedorn, and one of his pet projects is his scholarship fund at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated from the Wharton School. The fund provides scholarships to sophomores who give an indication that they will be successful entrepreneurs. Two of his favorite entrepreneurships included a student who made and sold homemade ice cream that had the flavors of cordials and liqueurs. Hagedorn says, "The business was so good, the young man had to drop out of school, reluctantly, to manage his business." Another student had his own Coca Cola vending machine business, and loaded his car with cases of soda and refilled the machines himself.

"I like to see the unusual things these kids are doing," says Hagedorn, fully aware that there are students from poor families who frequently have to skip a semester for lack of financial support. "Students like these are going to make it in tomorrow's world."

Hagedorn and his wife have contributed to many wonderful projects to improve the quality of life on Long Island and in their local community. He supports Port Washington's Landmark on Main Street, and with his interest in the environment, he provided a donation for the planting of 36 trees "to give Port Washington a little bit of a country feeling," he says. Hagedorn also supports Amy's work as president of Sustainable Long Island and a member of the Nassau County Planning Commission.

A believer in role models, Hagedorn supports One-on-One, a nationally known mentoring program, and Women on the Job, a nonprofit advocacy and educational group. Hagedorn donated his share of stock, valued at over $47 million, from the merger of Miracle-Gro and Scotts to the Long Island Community Foundation, and he and Amy serve on the Foundation board. An ob/gyn wing at North Short Hospital bears his name, and of course, the National Garden Writers Foundation is near and dear to Hagedorn's heart. He has committed thousands of dollars to this philanthropic arm of the Garden Writers Association of America.

When he's looking for a philanthropic project, Hagedorn, a longtime Sands Point resident, says he "likes to think of things that will exist after I have departed." He adds, "I've been very lucky in my life. I had a little product that caught on and that was lucky, too."

NETWORKING® January 2004