A great American scientist educated at Iowa colleges

George Washington Carver is one of the greatest of all American scientists, and he has strong connections to Central Iowa. He started college at Simpson and earned his B. S. in Agriculture at Iowa State where he also earned a Master’s degree. If you read his fascinating biography at the George Washington Carver National Monument website, you will find among other facts that he made sure when he applied to Simpson that they knew he was a Negro. Why? Because after showing up at Highland University in Kansas, the first college in Kansas, he was turned away with the words, “You didn’t tell me you were a Negro. Highland College does not take Negroes.”¹ Simpson can be proud to have been founded by a Methodist bishop who believed in the equality of all persons.

Carver’s work at Iowa State brought him into contact with two noteworthy professors, James G. Wilson (Secretary of Agriculture) and Henry Cantwell Wallace (Secretary of Agriculture and Editor of Wallace’s Farmer) and with Wallace’s son Henry Agard Wallace (founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred, Secretary of Agriculture and Vice-President of the United States).

George Washington Carver was a spiritual man who felt his work was a God-given mission. He worked without bitterness. Carver was prolific; he held few patents but had hundreds of agricultural inventions and processes to improve crop yields, revitalize depleted soil, and make products from peanuts and peanut waste. The American Chemical Society has a series of pages devoted to his work as an agricultural chemist and a teacher. Simpson College has named a science building after Carver; Iowa State has named a building too.

In recognition of Black History Month and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and in honor of George Washington Carver, Simpson College will be holding a free event on Thursday January 17 2008 at 7:30 pm in Smith Chapel on campus in Indianola. (W. Clinton and N. Buxton). The Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright, will receive the first Carver Medal and present the college’s 34th Annual George Washington Carver Lecture. Dr. Wright is the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Dr. Wright sometimes uses the phrase, “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.” I can’t afford to miss it so I’m going.

¹ http://www.nps.gov/archive/gwca/expanded/gwc_tour_03.htm (accessed 1/13/2008)

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

[tags] Iowa, Indianola, Ames, George Washington Carver, Black History Month, Central Iowa News[/tags]

Sandy Renshaw is Sandy Renshaw is a self-employed communications consultant. You will also find her blogging at Purple Wren.
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