Dr. Gerald L. Klingaman is a retired University of Arkansas Horticulture Professor and Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service Horticulturist, and retired Operations Director for the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. Klingaman was born in 1946 in Orlando, Oklahoma and grew up on his family's wheat farm in Mulhall, Oklahoma. Klingaman received his Bachelor of Science degree in horticulture from Oklahoma State University in 1969 and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1971 and 1973 respectively. He began working at the U of A in 1974, splitting his time as a professor in the horticulture department and as an Extension Specialist for the Division of Agriculture. He retired and became professor emeritus in 2005 and was the Operations Director for the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks from 2010 until 2018, whose Board of Directors honored him in 2011 by naming the arboretum collection after Klingaman. He is an active member of the Azalea Society of America for which he has presented many papers and presentations and has published and contributed to numerous other papers, newsletters, journal articles, and magazines regarding horticulture from the 1970s through 2024. One example is his column for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension titled "Plant of the Week" which he produced from 1997 until 2021. He then started a travel blog called "Musings on Nature: Out and About with Gerald and Whinny" where he writes about his travels across Arkansas, and sometimes the greater U.S., with his dog, Whinny. This blog is still active as of January 2024 on the Extension's website.