Celebrating Dr. Carver

By Allison Brophy Champion

Published: July 12, 2008

One of America’s greatest inventors and most transformative African American educators was born a sickly baby into slavery in Missouri.

Dr. George Washington Carver arrived on this Earth July 12, 1864, many historians agree, although it is said the man himself was never sure of his exact birth date.

There is no question, however, about the level of Carver’s contributions.

The alumni association of the George Washington Carver School of Culpeper County hosts a birthday celebration in his honor today at 3 p.m.

The old Carver building, located about six miles south of town along U.S. 15, operated as a segregated school for black students from 1948-1968.

Bobby Wilson, a Culpeper native and nurse at Culpeper Regional Hospital, graduated from Carver in 1965.

“We got a good education,” he said, “but it wasn’t equal. The teachers went out of their way to make sure we got a good education.”

Wilson mentioned the dedication of Carver teachers like Miss Wallace and Miss Finley. As for Dr. Carver, “He was one of the greatest people in the world,” Wilson added.

Today’s event will include music, refreshments and a talk by Col. Sam Glasker. It is free and open to the public.

“We just want to honor his many contributions to our country,” Wilson said.

Peggy Robins chronicles some of them on the National Park Service Web page of the George Washington Carver Birthplace District Association, a grassroots group dedicated to preserving Carver’s legacy.

“That he, a Negro, became the first and greatest chemurgist, almost single-handedly revolutionized Southern agriculture and received world acclaim for his contributions to agricultural chemistry was against all accepted patterns,” writes Robins.

“But seen from today’s distance, possibly the most amazing facet of the life of this gentle genius is the manner in which he overcame enormous prejudices and poverty in his struggle from nameless black boy to George Washington Carver, B.S., M.S., D.Sc., Ph.D., Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London, and Director of Research and Experiment at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama — all without a trace of bitterness, with total indifference to personal fortune, and thought only to make the world, and America in particular, a better place for all mankind.”

The list of inventions pioneered by Dr. Carver is truly impressive. An agricultural chemist, Carver discovered 300 uses for peanuts, including peanut butter.

Among the listed items he proposed to farmers were his recipes and improvements to/for: adhesives, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee, mayonnaise, shaving cream and talcum powder, just to name a few.

In spite of his intellectual richness, Dr. Carver did not care for material wealth.

“It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts,” he said.

“These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.”

George Washington Carver died Jan. 5, 1943.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or