Roland F. Behnke, 77, a retired Air Force major who became the president of a plant nursery and chain of gardening centers, died Jan. 16, Washington Post reported. He had corticobasal degeneration, a neurological disorder similar to Parkinson's disease.
From 1980 until his retirement in 1995, Mr. Behnke was president of the Behnke Nurseries Co., a family-owned chain of gardening centers and flower shops that his parents began in 1930. At its peak in the late 1980s, Behnke's was the largest chain of gardening centers in Maryland, employed more than 200 workers and grossed more than $6 million a year. It still has outlets in Beltsville and Potomac and a plant-growing facility in Lothian.