Meyer Kaplan

Meyer Kaplan (April 17, 1910 - September 2, 1992) is the paternal grandfather of Adrian D. Holmes. He was born in Russia during the final decade of the Romanov dynasty, prior to the Bolshevik revolution of 1914. His parents, along with various other members of his extended family, became victims of the violence which broke out during the rebellion, prompting Kaplan and his younger siblings to flee from Russia and make their way, on their own, to the United States. Their first stop in America was presumably Ellis Island in New York City in the early 1920s.

Kaplan developed a lifelong passion for plants and the science of horticulture, as he became an active member of the New York Gladiolus Society and bears the distinction of breeding and naming several new variations of gladiolus.

Kaplan moved to South Dakota as an adult and while there met and married Gladys Kaplan. They had two children, a son named Benjamin, who would later become Adrian D. Holmes's father, and a daughter named Janet, Holmes's aunt. The couple would move back to Smithtown, New York, in 1938, shortly after Benjamin's second birthday. It was in Smithtown where Kaplan would become the head gardener at the former Miller Estate located on Miller's Pond. The Estate has since been demolished and replaced by a shopping mall.

Kaplan moved with his wife Gladys to Prescott Valley in later years and would remain there for the rest of his life. He died of a heart attack on September 2, 1992. He and his future grandson Adrian D. Holmes never met.