Spotlight Upon Unsung Heroes

George Washington Carver:

Internationally Renown Researcher and Agronomy Educator

By Wilbur Thirkield Titus

This summary of George Washington Carver’s life was written and posted on his 
grave and reads: "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither,
he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."

I learned of Dr. George Washington Carver in a course in Negro History that I
took in Tillotson College many years ago, but it was only recently that I 
became aware of the magnitude of his achievements and contributions to modern
society and especially to the life of the United States of America.

This is a profile of Dr. George Washington Carver, July 12, 1864 - January 5, 
1963, an outstanding achiever as an international researcher and contributor
to American agricultural technology and progress. It seems quite fitting for
the spotlight to be focused upon him as a hero.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Dr. Carver’s "most important
accomplishments were in areas other than industrial products from peanuts, 
which include agricultural extension education, improvement of race relations,
mentoring children, poetry, painting, religion, advocacy of sustainable 
agriculture and appreciation of plants and nature.

He has been widely lauded for being a role model for African Americans ...
for his belng an example of the importance of hard work, a positive attitude,
and a good education. He has also been praised for his humility, 
humanitarianism, good nature, frugality and lack of economic materialism.

"One of his most important roles was that the fame of his achievements and 
many talents undermined the widespread stereotype of the time that the black 
race was intellectually inferior to the white race." This did much for the
improvement of racial understanding and relations."

Dr. Carver was born a slave in July 12, 1864, near what is now Diamond, 
Missouri. Following the kidnapping of infant George, his mother and sister, 
his health was severely impaired and his mother and sister died. Because of 
this condition, George was unable to do the work of the fields and was given 
duties elsewhere.

After the end of slavery, with the encouragement and assistance of benevolent 
whites, he studied at several schools before receiving his high school 
diploma at Minneapolis High School, Minneapolis, Kansas. Other schools 
attended include the following institutions: Simpson College, Iowa State
Agricultural College where he received his bachelors and master degrees,

His work experience includes his slave labor, managing his laundry business 
in Olathe, Kansas; research for Iowa Agriculture And Home EconomicsExperiment 
Station; head of Agricure Department, Tuskegee Normal And Industrial 
Institute, (Tuskegee University), taught classes and did research, worked as 
a consultant to presidents and lobbyist for peanut companies.

Dr. Carver received numerous awards, citations and honors, a few of which are 
listed below. He was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in England, 
1916, received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP for outstanding achievement
in 1923, received the Roosevelt Medal for Outstanding Contribution to 
Southern Agriculture in 1939, in 1977 was elected to the Hall of Fame for 
Great Americans, in 1990 was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of
Fame, Iowa State University awarded him the Doctor of Humane Letters in 1994,
was a charter inductee in the USDA Hall of Heroes as "Father of Chemurgy" in 
2000. He has received many many more accolades and is indeed an American 
hero.