Few people can say they've been at the White House since Richard Nixon was in office, but Dale Haney has served ten presidents during his lifetime, and he's not finished yet. Earlier this week, you may have spotted Haney standing next to Donald Trump, all smiles, while the two men used golden shovels to plant a sapling in place of the historic "Jackson Magnolia" tree that had to be cut down.
Tip your hat to Dale Haney, the White House gardener who has been mowing the executive lawn for 50 years now https://t.co/f3cVmT5oX7
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) October 9, 2022
Haney first started working at the White House in 1972 after graduating from Sandhills Community College in North Carolina with a degree in horticulture, but it wasn't his original plan. He was training to work at a museum in Washington, D.C. when he got the call from the White House, requesting that he come in for an interview.
Apparently, word of his expertise got around, even though he was only in his early 20s at the time. He eventually agreed to take the job but said he could only stay for two years as he wanted to return to college and further his studies. Fifty-three years later, he's still there, and he's one of the few people on the planet who have had such a unique front row seat to history.
"But the time has gone by so fast that it really doesn’t feel like 50 years," Haney said back in 2022 when the White House celebrated his 50th anniversary on the job, adding, "it has been easy to forget that time is passing. No day is ever the same and every day brings challenges."
From Voices of America:
He watched Nixon leave the White House by helicopter after he resigned in 1974. He saw President Jimmy Carter overseeing the signing of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979. And then there was the plane crash on the White House grounds in 1994, and the evacuation on 9/11.
Haney also was around for President Barack Obama’s “beer summit” in 2009 and President Donald Trump’s hosting of the Republican National Convention on the South Lawn in 2020.
He walked the grounds for fifty years of the White House Easter Egg Roll. And there were state arrival ceremonies for world leaders, including three visits by Queen Elizabeth II and three different popes.
Haney has also worn many hats over the years. In addition to the traditional groundskeeping duties, which include caring for 18 acres filled with about 700 trees and over 4,000 shrubs, along with several lawns and gardens, he oversees the White House Easter Egg Rolls and tends to the plants inside the Oval Office. He also selects the annual Christmas tree and helps plan major outdoor events and ceremonies at the people's house.
Related: One of the White House's Oldest Traditions
His current title is "superintendent of the White House grounds," but officially, he's been called everything ranging from White House gardener to chief horticulturalist. In 1976, a newspaper article even referred to him as the "chief White House bird chaser" when thousands of starlings were taking over the property at night.
Some people might even know him as the official White House dog walker. When he's not taking care of plants, he's helping take care of the first pets, dating all the way back to Nixon's Irish Setter, King Timahoe, a job he seems to take seriously and thoroughly enjoy. He looked after Bo and Sunny for the Obamas and helped with George W. and Laura Bush's Scottish terrier Barney. On September 11, when First Lady Laura Bush was rushed into a safe space after the terror attacks began, Haney reportedly even rushed to gather up the Bush pets so they could they could be with their human mom.
Laura once called him "the best friend to all the animals" and said she sometimes felt like they liked him more than the Bushes. While it seems like he's loved all of the presidential pets he's cared for over the years, Spot, the younger Bush family's English springer spaniel, may have been his favorite. "...but I do have a soft spot for Spot. I was there when she was born and now she's back," Haney said in 2003. Spot was born to Millie, the famous presidential pup that belonged to George H.W. and Barbara Bush, in 1989.
I'm just guessing here, but his least favorite may have been the most recent. Haney is one of the people who Joe Biden's German shepherd, Commander, bit during the Bidens' time in the White House. (I guess that was a bad four years for everyone.)
Dale Haney, 71, superintendent of White House grounds, has also walked presidential dogs since Nixon. pic.twitter.com/Y9dtpsOpVh
— jd mullane (@jdmullane) October 6, 2023
A 2009 article from the Today Show said that Haney works from about 6 a.m. until 4 p.m. each day and manages a staff of about 20 gardeners, repairmen, and electricians. He also works closely with the first ladies to help them implement any changes they'd like to see at the White House, whether it's Michelle Obama's vegetable garden or Melania Trump's changes to the Rose Garden.
His most recent notable work was making the decision to do away with that old "Jackson Magnolia" earlier this week. He told Fox News digital that he hated to see the tree go, but that he'd been trying to save it since the Reagan administration, and it had long outlived its prime.
Dale Haney, superintendent of the White House Grounds, told Fox News Digital on Monday that the nearly 200-year-old "Jackson Magnolia" needed to be taken down for safety reasons. pic.twitter.com/dPVS6Fl1lo
— AJD (@AshleyJDiMella) April 8, 2025
Haney is currently 73 years old, but I've seen no mention of him retiring. Then again, if I had such a cool job, I'm not sure I'd want to either. In 2022, the White House Historical Association published a 31-page story about him and his work at the White House. You can read more about him there, and it's got some really cool pictures if you're interested.
