The Greenville Pioneer 2022, Dec. 16

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

DURHAM — Friends and family of the late Bob Beyfuss bid a fond farewell to the renowned columnist and ginseng expert during a public Celebration of Life at The Shamrock House on March 11.

Beyfuss, who penned the popular column “Weekly Gardening Tips” for the Greenville Pioneer and other local publications, died Jan. 12 from a massive heart attack while playing softball with his friends in Florida, where he spent winters.

The Shamrock House was packed for the teary celebration, with people coming from as far away as Wisconsin and Canada to share stories and memories.

“Bob was 72 on Jan. 12, when he passed away. He was born on March 15, 1950, in Jersey City,” said Beyfuss’ cousin Ken Kavanagh, fondly known as “Cousin Ken,” who led the celebration.

“Bob was a loving, devoted father, grandfather and friend to all of us who knew him,” Kavanagh said. “His grandchildren knew him as ‘Grandbob,’ a moniker he wore very proudly. All of his friends that had kids, he would be introduced as ‘Grandbob,’ so Grandbob was Grandbob to everybody, not just his real grandkids, but to any of his friends who had children.”

In addition to his weekly column, Beyfuss was retired from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County and a globally recognized expert on ginseng. 

“Until his retirement in 2009, Bob worked at Cornell Cooperative Extension here in Greene County,” Kavanagh said. “He was most widely known for his expertise in ginseng. He got into ginseng when he was going for his Master’s degree at Cornell University. At that time, he didn’t know anything about ginseng — he talked to his advisors and they recommended he do research on ginseng and they said it would be pretty cool. He said he didn’t really want to do that but said he would. It was probably the best thing he ever did.”

Beyfuss became an advocate of ginseng and farming in natural areas, including the woods. He traveled extensively, sharing his knowledge of ginseng with others.

“It’s hard to know how many people were influenced by Bob, but it’s easy to say there were at least 10,000 people that Bob influenced,” Kavanagh said. “He published a weekly gardener column here in upstate New York and he had a regular program on (radio station) RIP 97.9. He was never paid to do any of these things, he did it because he loved the people here and he enjoyed sharing his knowledge.”

Outside of his professional life, Beyfuss was known as a personable man who made friends easily, his cousin said.

“Many people have reached out to me to say how personable Bob was — after a short conversation with him you felt like you knew him all of your life and you were instantly lifelong friends,” Kavanagh said. “He had a spark to do that.”

Beyfuss’ friend Charlie Henderson traveled from Wisconsin to attend the Celebration of Life at The Shamrock House.

“Bob was a good man. He was a decent man and we had great times,” Henderson said.

He shared memories of going out on a fishing boat together to catch fish and watch the dolphins.

“Bob was a good guy — very smart, very knowledgeable,” Henderson said. “He will be well missed.”

Local resident Carl Kohrs said he first met Beyfuss in the early 1970s and for years, only knew him by the nickname, “Shorty.” They worked together on the Greene County Youth Fair where Kohrs sits on the board.

“I became involved with the Greene County Youth Fair. I don’t know when Bob started being the announcer of the horse show, but every year that I have been involved in the youth fair, Bob has been the announcer of the horse show,” Kohrs said.

Kavanagh said Beyfuss really enjoyed and valued his time working with the youth fair. It was an issue he shared in his column each year.

GREENVILLE — With just a few days left in 2022, we are halfway through the final week and the countdown of the top 5 local stories of 2022.

Here is Number 3, a story about a longtime local business that is being reimagined, and drew the top 3 number of views on both TheUpstater.com and on Facebook for the year.

NUMBER 3: Rainbow Golf: New owner looks to the future, and the past

GREENVILLE — A golf course that has been in Greenville for generations has a new owner who is looking to honor the business’s legacy with an eye to the future.

Hugo Li first learned of Rainbow Golf Club Inn & Suites in 2020 and sealed the deal in November 2021. Since then, he has been planning and renovating the resort and expects to be open for golfers in April.

“We will be open for golf 100% by the beginning of April, depending on the weather,” Li said.

Renovations on the inn’s rooms is just about complete and work is ongoing at the clubhouse and expected to be finished by late April or early May, Li said. He is renaming the inn Birmann Lodge in honor of the previous owner who owned the property for many years.

Plans are also in the works for some improvements to the golf course itself, but most of the work will be done to the business’s other amenities.

“We are going to get rid of all the dead trees, redo the pathway and do some cleaning work on the golf course, but most of it will be as is,” he noted.

Li has looked to local suppliers and workers for the renovation project, he said.

“We really want to support local business, so we hired mostly all local people and they have been really talented, good workers,” Li said.

Once completed, the clubhouse will provide a space that can be rented out by club members, visitors and the public. The golf course is public and open to anyone, with or without a membership.

“We are renovating the clubhouse as a private space so people in the future can reserve that space for birthday parties, small weddings or graduation celebrations,” Li said. “They can put 30 to 40 people in that space. We are also adding a little gym underneath the clubhouse — it’s not going to be a fancy gym, but it will be functional. It will have most of the equipment you could ask for, and it will be open for both members and for the public.”

Another amenity that will be renovated is the tennis court.

“The tennis court hasn’t really been used for over four or five years, but we want to renovate that tennis court and bring it back to life,” Li said. “We are also adding mini golf for kids or anyone who just wants to chill. Along with mini golf, we want to put some tables and chairs where people can sit and have coffee or a drink while watching their kids play mini golf.”

One of the biggest new additions to Rainbow will be glamping facilities.

Glamping — a combination of the words “glamorous” and “camping” — offers a camping experience with services and amenities not usually associated with camping, and is gaining in popularity.

“We want to put some glamping concepts around the golf course,” Li said. “For example, at the old driving range, a part of that will be used to create an event space with a campfire and tents where people can go and just enjoy the summer. We also want to do summer activities — we bought an outdoor movie screen that would be open to the public. We might have movie nights once or twice a week that would be free to the public as well.”

The goal is to begin offering glamping in the middle of May, but Li is still working on the permitting and licensing process, he said. Four glamping sites would be opened this year, with as many as 10 to 15 added in future years.

“We want to build tiny A-frame houses that would not have a kitchen or bathroom — it’s only for daily activities so people could rent that space for a day to do meditation, read or just enjoy time with friends or by themselves in nature,” Li said.

He is looking to utilize more of the property beyond the golf course.

“It’s a huge property — we have 144 acres and we are just using the golf in the middle,” Li said. “There is still a big chunk of land around the golf course that is not being used.”

Li, who works in commercial real estate, is originally from China and moved to New York City after living in Atlanta for a while. He was drawn to Greenville during the pandemic and the associated shutdowns.

“During the pandemic I was sick of the city — just locked in my small apartment, and I couldn’t go out or see my friends. The only thing I could do was go out on my balcony and look across the Hudson River — that was all I could do,” he said.

The views of nature inspired him to look beyond the city’s offerings.

“I looked at a couple of sites for getaways and glamping, and it was all fully booked for the next four or five months. I said, ‘This is hot’ — I truly believe in this trend, glamping, and I don’t think it is a one- or two-year trend. I think it is really a new fashion,” Li said. “I wanted to find a place to do this myself.”

Greenville offered the best of all worlds.

“I finally found Greene County and it was the perfect location,” Li said. “It is two hours from New York City and three hours from Boston, which is perfect… People feel like it is a road trip and they want to stay, but it’s not too much, like a four-hour trip.”

Working with investors, Li’s company, Terracotta Management, purchased the Rainbow property and found an unexpected amenity he didn’t even know was there — an air strip capable of landing small airplanes.

“I didn’t know there was an air strip until I had made the decision to buy the property,” he said. “I didn’t know it existed, but it’s a bonus. You can land small planes, a helicopter, as long as you are registered with the FAA. According to the seller, some people would land their plane, come out and play golf, and then fly away. We haven’t really thought about how to use that air strip, but it is definitely something interesting and we want to keep it.”

This is not Li’s first major project — he renovated a similar, but smaller, resort in Saipan, a U.S. territory near Guam — but Rainbow is his largest project to date.

“We want to add modern features into this classic property and bring some fresh air to the business,” Li said. “We want to be a part of the community and be really close to all of our neighbors and other business owners in the community. Our first priority is to work with people locally. We want to give back to the community because without the community, this place would not exist.”