Diane Kostial McGuire, landscape architect, horticulturalist, scholar and mentor, passed away on February 28, 2019, at the age of 85 after an acute illness. A longtime resident of Little Compton, she exemplified a life of connection to nature and ideas through her love of gardens and their history.

She was born and raised in San Diego, California, where her academic and athletic talents were apparent early on (she was National Junior hard court tennis champion in 1950). At the age of 17, she entered the University of California at Berkeley earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Landscape Architecture from 1950 to 1956.

After working for several landscape design firms in San Francisco and Rochester, NY, she moved to Boston where she was awarded a fellowship to investigate the graphic representation of gardens in history at the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study.

In 1966, she was the founder and served as the first Director of the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design where she trained many students (predominately women) who proceeded on to illustrious careers. She was appointed Landscape Architect for Radcliffe College from 1965 to 1981, and for both Wellesley College and Harvard University from 1973 to 1979.

In 1975, she established a private firm, McGuire and Watson Landscape Architects and Site Planners, with her colleague Barbara Harrison Watson, that won numerous awards for its work. She served as an Advisor of the Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC from 1975 to 1981 and as its Acting Director of Studies in the History of Landscape Architecture from 1979 to 1980. She also served as Program Director and Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville from 1981 to 1984.

In her later professional life, she authored two books, Gardens of America (1989) and American Garden Design (1994), coauthored a third, Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes: Her Gardens and Campuses (1985), and edited several others. Throughout her career, she took special interest in women landscape architects and gardeners, nurturing them professionally and studying their contributions to the field. Her own distinctive contributions were recognized and celebrated by the University of California at Berkeley (Distinguished Alumna Award, 2003) and the Boston Architectural College (Honorary Doctorate in Landscape Architecture, 2012).

Above all else, she loved her house and her garden in Little Compton.

She was the daughter of the late Charles and Josephine (Cerveny) Kostial, and is survived by a sister, Shelby Kostial Guelich, three grateful sons, Marsden, Stuart, and Terrance McGuire, two daughters-in-law, Mary Erin O’Byrne and Linda Puls McGuire, and four admiring grandchildren, Eleanor, Graeme, Cayden and Brynna McGuire.

A celebration of her life will be held in a natural setting later this year. Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made in her memory to Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC) or the Paralyzed Veterans of America.