In 1964, his family had just moved from the big city to a small town in western Colorado. The town library was a very small fraction of the size of the big city library. His junior high school library was in an almost closet sized room off of the office of the principal.
He liked reading all sorts of books, but his favorites seemed to be biographies of inventors and other scientists. He had read books on Galileo, and Edison, and Einstein. So while he was perusing the small library in his small school in the small western Colorado town he noticed one book with the label on the spine that said, "George Washington Carver." He pulled it off the shelf and casually flipped through it, then, while replacing the book back on the shelf, wondered--who would name their child after a President of the United States?
A few weeks later, he checked out the biography of George Washington Carver. It turned out that there was more than scientific discoveries in the book. There was philosophy and words to live by:
"It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobiles one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success." -- George Washington Carver
| From: http://uspsstamps.tumblr.com/post/27049602788/happy-birthday-george-washington-carver-born-on |
Carver was born to a slave named Mary in the month of January, 1864. That's all that is known. Mary had no known last name, and she was owned by a couple named Carver. As George was growing up he would introduce himself as "Carver's George." George Washington Carver was able to overcome numerous hardships, and racism that was prevalent throughout the US during his life.
George Washington Carver went on to study in Kansas and Iowa, and then became a professor at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Carter is famously known for developing over 100 new products from the peanut plant. With a greater need for peanuts, farmers were then encouraged to rotate their crops, from a continuous growing of cotton, to every other year planting peanuts, allowing the soil to rest and providing nitrogen to the depleted soils.
Carter also worked on sweet potatoes, cowpeas, soybeans, and other crops developing dyes, paints, lubricants, mayonnaise, and other products.
There is a sense felt that Carver was to the early twentieth century what Nelson Mandela became in the late twentieth century. Maybe this is hyperbole. Maybe. But the obstacles, the resistance, the hardships that he faced throughout his life failed to create fear and hate in his heart.
"One of the things that has helped me as much as any other, is not how long I am going to live but how much I can do while living." -- George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver did not let the haters spoil his life. He rose above those feelings to achieve things which benefited all of humankind. And now the young boy who moved to that small town in western Colorado years ago, has grown and tried, sometimes not very well, to live as Carver had lived. Are there heros in your life? Are there people in your life who overcome all hurdles to rise above the fray?
A few more quotes by George Washington Carver:
"Day after day, I spent in the woods alone in order to collect my floral beauties, and put them in my little garden I had hidden in brush not far from the house, as it was considered foolishness in the neighborhood to waste time on flowers." -- George Washington Carver
"One reason I never patent my products is that if I did it would take so much time, I would get nothing else done. But mainly I don't want my discoveries to benefit specific favored persons." -- George Washington Carver
| From: http://www.biography.com/people/george-washington-carver-9240299 |
"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses." -- George Washington Carver
"Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise." -- George Washington Carver
Happy birthday, George! You still rise above the rest.
I like this post. I didn't know he had the same birthday as you. I like imagining that little boy's disappointment in the small library but his probable excitement of a lot of space to roam in that small town. Let's go there!
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