WOLKING, Allen Arthur, 89, a loving and devoted husband, father and friend, died Friday, August 29, 2008, at University Community Hospital, following a brief illness. He and his wife, the former Virginia Lee James, were known in Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla., and throughout the Deep South District of the American Rose Society as well, for their freely shared knowledge about growing, exhibiting and judging roses. Both master gardeners, they performed exacting soil analyses, conducted onsite Inspections of problem gardens and answered many gardening questions an behalf of the Hillsborough County agricultural office. They appeared on local television shows and hosted frequent tours of their garden in the Lake Magdalene area. Allen and Virginia Lee met when they were students at Florida Southern College in Lakeland and married in 1938. Settling initially in her home town of Tampa, they began rearing their three daughters here until his transfer to Savannah in 1945, when he began his employment with Strachan Shipping Co., a large maritime agency which oversaw shipping along Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf ports. His promotion to a management position returned the family to Florida three years later. His responsibilities included being the liaison between the ships which plied the oceans and the seaports which received their cargo and coordinating pilot services to guide the ships into port. He then arranged stevedoring services to unload and distribute cargo while seeing that goods for the next ports were stowed safely and that the ships were properly provisioned and manned. Shipping emergencies such as collisions, fires and hurricanes made his schedule unpredictable, but the couple found that rose gardening was a common interest for them that could accommodate irregular hours. They joined the Jacksonville Rose Society, soon becoming regular rose exhibitors, consulting rosarians and then judges. They transferred their memberships and skills to the Tampa Rose Society in 1977, after his promotion to assistant vice president of Strachan. He assumed the duties of supervising all company activities for the Port of Tampa until his retirement in 1984. Allen was president of the Tampa Rose Society in 1987-1988, and he and Virginia Lee were awarded bronze medals by the local organization, as well as other awards at the district level. Though his wife' s long illness and death in 2004 precluded his active participation in the local or national rose organizations, he had extended his membership another two years in the weeks preceding his death. Besides their membership in local and national gardening societies and clubs. Both were members of the First Presbyterian Church of Tampa, the home church of Virginia Lee' s family. Allen leaves behind three daughters and sons-in-law, Virginia Lee Wolking, and husband, Kenneth W. Edwards of Sneads, Marian Beatrix and Charles P. Goodyear of Jacksonville, and Alice Christina and Dr. Herbert Ferran of Wells, Maine. His grandson, William A. Scruggs preceded him in death in 1995, leaving great-grandchildren, Rachael A. Scruggs and Will A. Scruggs of Chattanooga, Tenn., to mourn his passing. Others who grieve are sister and brother-in-law, Dorothy and J. E. Campbell of Glenview, Ill., sister-in-law, Florence Wolking of Merritt Island, Fla., Leland M. Hawes Jr. and Virginia Lee Hawes Knight, Virginia Lee' s first cousin, and many nieces and nephews. Neighbors Gilbert and Joan Manter, and Lambda Chi fraternity brother Bob Dunn were part of his extended family as well. A brief graveside service for friends and family members will be conducted by the Rev. Fitz Conner of First Presbyterian Church, and will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday, September 4, at Garden of Memories on Lake Ave., Tampa. He will be buried beside Virginia Lee, his wife of 66 years, who preceded him in death December 25, 2004. Prevatt Funeral Home, Hudson, Fla (727) 863-3700 or visit www.prevattfuneralhome.com .Published in TBO.com on Sept. 3, 2008