The inaugural Legend of Extension award recognizes those who have made North
Carolina Cooperative Extension what we are today. Going forward, these awards
will recognize Cooperative Extension leaders who continue to make North
Carolina a progressive state.
An alumnus of the Missouri 4-H program, Dr. Chester Dunlap Black served as North
Carolina 4-H leader from 1970 to 1975. As 4-H leader, he sought to expand 4-H's
influence in cities, towns and rural areas. At that time, North Carolina 4-H
agents were either assistant agricultural or assistant home economics
agents. Black cooperated with a small group of 4-H agents to convince the
Extension Director to professionalize the 4-H agent position.
He also initiated the addition of a 4-H para-professional into the staffing
model for County programs. As a result, the North Carolina Association of
Extension 4-H agents was founded in 1972. Dr. Black served as director of
North Carolina's Cooperative Extension from 1982 to 1989.
Among his many awards and honors, Black is a member of the National 4-H Hall of
Fame and a recipient of a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Retired
Faculty Resource Development Award.
Wilson County native Dr. Thomas Carlton Blalock was North Carolina's State 4-H
leader from 1964 to 1970. He served as director of the North Carolina
Cooperative Extension service from 1978 to 1981. He also has served as President
of the 4-H Development Fund and the Cooperative Extension Service Fund and
as Executive Vice President of the Tobacco Growers Association of North
Carolina.
During his 30-year career, he led the integration of 4-H and the Extension
service. He shifted 4-H from a school-based program to a
community-based organization, introducing 4-H programs in urban areas.
In 2006, Blalock became the third North Carolinian to be inducted into the
National 4-H Hall of Fame and in 2011, he received the Watauga Medal for
distinguished to North Carolina State University.
From his beginnings as a County 4-H agent and later as a state 4-H
specialist at North Carolina A&T State University, William C. Cooper had an
integral role in helping integrate 4-H programs in North Carolina. When he came
to A&T in 1945, Cooper led the state 4-H program for African-American youth in 43
counties. He was instrumental in starting the state's first camp for
African-American 4-H-ers, Camp Mitchell which opened in 1956 in Onslow County.
Cooper was appointed by Federal officials to lead a southern regional
4-H committee, a black leaders that found sponsors for awards and incentive
programs they designed for black youth club members.
Ada Braswell Dalla Pozza served North Carolina Cooperative Extension for more
than 70 years as an agent, faculty member, mentor and volunteer. Miss Ada
as she is affectionately known was a pioneering educator who devoted decades
to improving the lives of North Carolinians.
Dalla Pozza passed away January 31st, 2014 at the age of 91. Her accolades
include the North Carolina State University Alumni Association Award of
Merit, the NC State Grange Woman of the Year and National Association of
Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Distinguished Service Award. She also
was named to the North Carolina 4-H Hall of Fame and the Inaugural Class of the
North Carolina Family and Consumer Sciences Foundation Hall of Fame.
Dr. Daniel D. Godfrey was appointed as North Carolina's first 1890 Extension
Administrator in October of 1978. His appointment was another significant step
in the advancement of Cooperative Extension at North Carolina A&T State
University because the administrator position there holds equal authority to
that of the State Director position at NC State University and at other 1862
schools.
Godfrey also served from 1994 to 2000 as Dean and Research Director at A&T School
of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences in concert with his tenure as
Extension Administrator. In 2000, Godfrey became the second
African-American Extension Administrator ever to lead the National Extension
Committee on Organization and Policy. He retired from his administrative duties
in 2001 but continues to serve and advise several agriculture-related
boards and committees.
Known as Mr. 4-H, Lera R. Harrill was the first full-time Extension agent for
youth work, a role he began in 1922. In 1926, he was named State 4-H Club Leader
holding that position until 1963. During the 1930s, North Carolina 4-H grew
expanding to all 100 counties. During Harrill's tenure as State 4-H Leader,
the organization's annual membership increased from 20,000 to 160,000
youngsters the largest 4-H enrollment of any state in the nation.
Harrill provided leadership to more than 3 million young people during his
service. Throughout his career, he stressed the citizenship and character
building aspects of 4-H and promoted the development of the skills that could be
learned from 4-H projects and demonstrations.
An alumnus of North Carolina A&T State University and the one time 4-H County
agent, Robert Earl Jones was hired at his alma mater in 1936 as the first
full-time African-American 4-H leader. In 1939, he started the 4-H Mirror, the
first monthly newsletter chronicling the activities and accomplishments of
African-American club members.
Jones later succeeded John Mitchell as State Supervisor of African-American
farm agents. He was appointed Assistant Director of the Agricultural Extension
service but continued to maintain his office at North Carolina A&T. Jones was
the first African-American to serve on the National Extension Committee on
Organization and Policy. Among his many awards, he received the US Department of
Agriculture Superior Service Award in 1959 and NC State University's Gamma
Sigma Delta Certificate of Merit.
In 1919 along with 40 other African-American women, Dazelle Foster
Lowe was hired as an Emergency Home Demonstration agent to meet the needs of
homemakers during World War I. These agents were employed during the summer
to teach African-American clients to can and preserve their fruits and vegetables
in order to contribute to the war effort.
Additionally, Lowe and others taught lessons on sanitation, health and home
improvement. Lowe worked in Davidson County and was made a full-time Home
Demonstration agent in 1923. By 1929, she was assigned offices at North
Carolina A&T where she helped bolster the 4-H program. Lowe with support from
other African-American home agents helped start a college loan program for
African-American 4-H girls.
Jane Simpson McKimmon not only made ground-breaking changes in the North
Carolina Cooperative Extension service, she also helped to change the way that
women cared for their families. She served as State Director of the Women's
Division of the Farmers Institutes from 1908 to 1911 when Dr. I.O. Schaub
encouraged her to accept the position as the first North Carolina State Home
Demonstration agent.
McKimmon established tomato clubs for young girls to learn and practice new
agricultural techniques and the growing and canning of tomatoes. McKimmon
retired from Home Demonstration work in 1937 but continued to serve as Assistant
Director of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension service until
1946. McKimmon died at the age of 90 in 1957 and the McKimmon Center for
Extension and Continuing Education is named in her honor.
As an agent who had worked in Columbus and Pasquotank Counties, John W.
Mitchell was appointed a District agent and relocated to North Carolina A&T in
1929. By 1931, Mitchell and Dazelle Foster Lowe had helped increase
enrollment of African-American 4-H youth to nearly 5,000.
Mitchell later became the first African-American Supervisor of
African-American farm agents in the state. Eventually, he moved to the US
Department of Agriculture in Washington as a field agent for the Federal
Extension Office. Camp Mitchell, the 4-H camp was named for John Mitchell.
Ira Obed Schaub was North Carolina's first Corn Club agent, pioneering the
agricultural club work that would evolve into Extension 4-H. As the number of
corn clubs grew, poultry and pig clubs were added.
In 1924, Schaub became Director of the Extension Service, serving in that
capacity until his retirement in 1950. Schaub was also North Carolina State's
Dean of Agriculture from 1926 to 1945, an Acting Director of the Agricultural
Experiment Station from 1937 to 1940. When he died in 1971 at age 91, the
Raleigh times remembered him with these words, "It's impossible to put a true
measure on what Dean I.O Schaub did for NC State, for Raleigh and for North
Carolina.