O. C. Simonds

Ossian Cole Simonds, a UM graduate and Chicago landscape designer who had been hired to design Cedar Bend Park, returned to prepare a plan for the Nichols Arboretum. After Burns left for the University of Vermont in 1910, the botanical garden was moved to a flatter location more suited for research, but the arboretum continued. Still jointly owned by the city and the university, it remains one of Ann Arbor's best-loved parks.

He established the first professional program in landscape design at UM, the second of its kind in the nation.