When I try to teach the importance of students limiting their research topics, I tell them a parable centered on Dr. George Washington Carver.
The story goes something like this:
One day when Dr. Carver, a devout Christian, was praying, he asked the Lord to teach him everything about the universe.
“George, you will never live long enough for me to do that,” the Lord replied with a hint of amusement.
“Well, Lord, teach me everything about the earth,” Carver replied.
“Now, George, that subject is just too broad for you,” the Lord said. “You need to pick on something your own size.”
Carver was exasperated. In his dismay, he narrowed his scope and changed his prayer.
“Well, then, Lord, teach me everything about the peanut.”
“George, I believe you have finally picked something you can handle,” the Lord said. So began Carver’s lifelong research into peanuts and other agricultural products.
When I first mention Carver’s name, the few students who have heard of him at all refer to him as “The Peanut Man.” He was “The Peanut Man” — and so much more.
Carver has been one of my heroes. He was born the son of slave parents, Mary and Giles, who belonged to Moses Carver of Diamond, Mo. Although his exact date of birth is unknown, most researchers place the year of his birth around 1864.
When Carver was but a week old, raiders from Arkansas kidnapped him, his mother and his sister and sold them in Kentucky. An agent for Moses Carver was able to recover baby George and bring him home. When slavery ended in 1865, Moses and Susan Carver kept George and his brother James. They educated the boys in their home because the local schools of that day did not accept black students.
He eventually earned his high school diploma from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kan. He was accepted into Highland College in Highland, Kan., — until he showed up and school officials discovered he was black.
After homesteading for several years, he enrolled in Simpson College in Iowa. The year was 1890. Carver was around 25 or 26 at the time. He showed a flair for the arts, especially in his botanical sketches. One of his teachers urged him to enroll in the botany program at Iowa State Agricultural College in Ames. He was the first black student at Iowa State.
He was such a strong student that once he finished his bachelor’s degree, two of his professors, Joseph Budd and Louis Pammel, encouraged him to study for a master’s. His graduate work focused on plant pathology.
After Carver finished his master’s, Booker T. Washington recruited him to teach at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Washington had established the institute to help freedmen develop the literacy and farming skills they needed to make their way as farmers.
Carver joined the faculty in 1896. From that time until his death in 1943, Carver taught and did research.
He taught Tuskegee students about the importance of crop rotation and of diversifying their crops instead of depending on cotton as their sole cash crop. He developed the “Jessup Wagon,” an early mobile classroom, to take his training to the farmers.
His research into plants developed new uses for soybeans, sweet potatoes, pecans and — yes — peanuts. He is most noted for his work with the peanut because his expertise led to invitations for him to speak to the Peanut Growers Association and before the U.S. Congress. He wrote a syndicated newspaper column and toured the nation speaking on agricultural issues.
By the end of his life, he had developed more than 100 products using the peanut.
He lived a frugal life. He was guided by the principles of the bible and a philosophy of life he summarized in these words:
“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. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.”
The legacy of his service still blesses us today.
The wisdom of his words still challenges us all.
Mike Parker is a columnist for The Free Press. You can reach him at mparker16@suddenlink.net or in care of this newspaper. For more information about Dr. Carver, visit Biography.com.