Entrepreneur Credits Success to Mentors After Difficult Past [Video]

Arleen Kaull and Chris Johnson first met John Bourne when he was 16 years old, as he came through the  to fulfill his 20 community service hours following a minor run-in with the law.

Bourne was stopped by Newport police for driving an unregistered car without his license.

It was an embarrassing lapse in judgment, Bourne admits today—now seven years later, revealing that wide, perfect white smile that led to his impulsive act back then; Bourne was so excited to see his braces removed that day and wanted to share the moment with friends. He had already taken driving lessons and just got into the family car without thinking much about it, he recalled.

He barely drove a few blocks when he was pulled over. He didn’t know the registration hadn’t been renewed, an early sign of trouble at home.

Kaull and Johnson, who run and manage the day-to-day operations at the Middletown Senior Center, had welcomed Bourne as they often do with local youth referred there. They found out what his strengths and skills were and looked for ways he could help out and feel good about himself. Whether they're working with youth volunteering for school, church or legal service hours, they take this same approach with all.

Kaull and Johnson asked him to edge the landscaping outside that had become a little unruly.

Bourne gladly did so.

He already had been working in horticulture since age 14 and loved everything about it.

During a difficult period of years that began in Grade 9 when his father passed away and his mother later turned to alcoholism, working in horticulture and connecting to the earth had become his touchstone.

Bourne recalled attending a school-based program on horticulture where he first met Michael Chille, who soon after hired him to help out in his successful Newport landscaping and horticulture business that serviced commercial as well as residential clients.

Chille soon became Bourne’s mentor in work and in life after Bourne’s mother alcoholism spiraled and she abandoned him.

He was forced to live on his own, paying his own rent at age 17 with some minor assistance he received from his late father’s Social Security payments left to him.

“He was more like a father figure to me,” Bourne recalled of Chille. “I had a bunch of angels, or whatever you want to call it, in my life, who came out of the wood work to help me during that time. My boss was one—he gave me a year-round job so I could pay my rent and he helped me out with food.”

“Chris was another one,” Bourne added, referring to Chris Johnson at the Senior Center, who kept in touch and encouraged him over the years after Bourne fulfilled his community service hours.

A three-season athlete at Rogers High School, Bourne continued to play football and was on the swim and indoor and outdoor track teams throughout those difficult times, and he and Johnson began running into each other frequently at the local gym.

He credits that minor and frightening brush with the law and the mentors who helped him along the way with inspiring him to work hard and follow positive influences in life.

At age 23 today, Bourne is the proud owner and operator of Bourne Green Horticultural Services,which prides itself on providing organic gardening and landscaping services with zero emissions technology.

No loud or noisy machinery coughing up smoke outside. Bourne does most of his work by hand and with organic or natural pesticies and manual tools. If a backhoe is needed, he’ll subcontract that work out and check with the client ahead of time for special permissions, he said.

As a father figure and boss, Chille instilled in Bourne many of the values that guide him today—always look out for one’s self, for others and for Mother Nature.

“That’s why my business is organic today,” Bourne said.

Chille taught Bourne everything he knows today about horticulture, but the lessons on the business side of things came much sooner than expected.

Three years ago, Chille became ill with testicular cancer and Bourne stepped up to help with the bookkeeping, management and client relations. That role grew over time as Chille’s condition worsened.

His mentor and father figure battled but lost the fight and died last year, Bourne said.

In the summer of 2010 at the age of 22, Bourne started his own business, Bourne Green Horticultural Services, and many of the clients he'd met from managing Chille’s former business faithfully followed him to his new endeavor. His big accounts today include the Newport Hospital, Hotel Viking and prominent commercial shopping centers in Newport.

About 85-percent of his clients are commercial and 15-percent are residential. Bourne is ever striving to make his company as earth-friendly as possible. Besides the organic pesticides and zero-emissions techniques, he’s researching the implementation of solar-powered tools into his work.

To honor his mentor's memory and to pass on those valuable life lessons he’s learned from Chille and others, Bourne also wants to give back to other troubled youth, knowing how critical it is to have support from others to find success in life.

With such encouragement and support during those critical formative years, Bourne was able to continue in school and graduate from Rogers. He went on to earn a degree in English at URI. He’s now in grad school and pursuing a Master’s Degree in Education, so that he eventually will combine his love of horticulture with a strong desire to give back through teaching.

“It’s come full circle and I want to give back. Landscaping is great, but I also want to continue helping people,” Bourne said, noting that ideally he'd love to teach and run his seasonal landscaping business.

This summer, Bourne is back at the Middletown Senior Center working on beautifying the landscaping and flowerbeds outside, after getting some area businesses to donate plantings and supplies and securing deep wholesale discounts through his business connections.

“I wanted to beautify the Senior Center so that it is as beautiful on the outside as it is on the inside,” Middletown Senior Center Executive Director Arleen Kaull said.

Kaull first contacted Middletown Patch to proudly introduce us to Bourne and his inspiring story.

When she spoke about "beautifying" the inside of the Senior Center with some tears in her eyes, it was clear Kaull was in part referring to the sense of community and support that the other volunteers, seniors and staff work to provide everyone who enters its doors—including young teens and others who sometimes find themselves there to right a wrong, or correct a minor misstep in their path of self-discovery.

For more information about Bourne Green Horticultural Services, John Bourne can be reached at 401-662-2499 or bournegreenri@gmail.com.