George Washington Carver
2025 Carver Medal Ceremony and Lecture
Hon. Mike Espy
Simpson-Carver Connection
Born in Diamond, Missouri, in 1864 during the Civil War, George Washington Carver’s actual birth date is uncertain. Enslaved to Moses Carver, he never knew his mother, who disappeared in a raid.
Since public schools in Diamond did not accept persons of color, young Carver walked ten miles away to Neosho, where Mariah Watkins ran an African American school. Carver showed intelligence and promise for learning, which included a thirst for knowledge about all living things.
Obtaining his education in pieces, in 1886, Carver was accepted by a college in Kansas. Upon arrival, he was denied admission due to the color of his skin. Afterward, Carver tried homesteading before heading north by train, arriving in 1888 in Winterset, Iowa.
Recognized for his fine singing voice, he was befriended by the Milholland family, who encouraged him to attend Simpson College but he was reluctant based on his experience. With the Milhollands’ continued encouragement, Carver walked twenty-five miles to Indianola in the fall of 1890, where he presented himself for admission to Simpson College. President Holmes examined his high school record and, reaching out to shake hands, welcomed George Carver to Simpson. He was the College’s second African American student.
Desiring to study art, Professor Etta May Budd could see both Carver’s talent and impoverished state. Enlisting the help of her friend Sophia Liston, who owned a bookstore on the square with her husband, and with help from President Holmes, they found an abandoned shack near campus, which became Carver’s home and where he ran a successful laundry business.
While Carver was a talented artist, Etta Budd believed making a living in this profession was unlikely. With his interest and knowledge of botany, Budd’s father, a professor at the Iowa Agricultural College in Ames, facilitated Carver’s admission the following school year. He returned to Indianola that summer for art classes and exhibited paintings at the 1892 World’s Fair in Chicago.
After earning a B.A. in 1894 and an M.A. in 1896 from Iowa Agricultural College, Carver was offered a teaching position by Booker T. Washington at Alabama’s Tuskegee College (now Tuskegee University). He never left Tuskegee, spending his entire life teaching students and farmers about soil sustainability and safeguarding natural resources.
Finding hundreds of uses for plants like peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans, Carver believed a weed was just a plant in the wrong place. Finding ideas and inspiration during his daily walks in the woods surrounded by nature, Carver never patented his inventions, preferring to share them with the world.
During a time when science and religion occupied different ends of a long measuring stick, Carver’s beliefs hinged on combining divine inspiration with scientific experimentation. He saw them as completely compatible, with inspiration never at variance with information. He believed science was about seeking the truth, and the closer we came to nature and its teachings, the closer we came to the divine Creator.
In 1928, Simpson College awarded Carver his first honorary degree, a Doctor of Science. Carver spoke to an overflow crowd at Simpson’s 1941 baccalaureate and was posthumously honored in 1956 with the dedication of Carver Science Hall.
George Washington Carver died on January 5, 1943 during World War II. Carver never married and is buried next to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee University. His gravestone is inscribed: “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.”
Simpson College is a founding member of the national network of Carver Heritage Schools, which also includes Iowa State University, Kansas State University, Lincoln University of Missouri, and Tuskegee University. The Carver Heritage Schools take turns hosting the annual George Washington Carver Symposium and Awards Luncheon.
I owe to Simpson College my real beginning in life.
–
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver medal ceremony and lecture
Smith Chapel
January 30, 2025
7 p.m.
order of ceremonies
Prelude Selected Pieces
Sohee Lee, College Organist
Invocation
Welcome and Introduction of Carver Fellows
Reflections on George Washington Carver’s legacy
The Rev. Mara Bailey ’06, chaplain
The Rev. Mara Bailey ’06, chaplain
Kylie Rae Torres ’25 at Simpson College Nadia Murobyi ’25
Musical Selection “We Shall Walk through the Valley,” arr. Undine Smith Moore Simpson College Chamber Singers
Introduction of Speaker
Lecture
Presentation of the Carver Medal
Citations
President Jay Byers, J.D., ’93
Hon. Mike Espy
Dr. Maeve B. Callan, Bishop Matthew Simpson Endowed Professor of Religion and Chair, Committee on Academic Diversity and Inclusion, on behalf of the faculty Makayla Johnson ’27, Black Student Union, on behalf of the students
Reading of the Proclamation and President Jay Byers, J.D., ’93
Presentation of the Carver Medal
Benediction
Postlude
The Rev. Edgar Solis, Director of Connectional Ministries, Iowa Annual Conference, United Methodist Church
Improvisation on “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
the Carver medal
Simpson College established the Carver Medal in 2008 to annually recognize an outstanding individual whose life exemplifies the commitment and vision of service of George Washington Carver. The annual Carver Lecture dates back to 1975.
George Washington Carver was a remarkable man. The son of slaves, his determination and persistence led to a life of tremendous accomplishment and success. Carver is most noted as a great agricultural scientist, but he was much more than just a scientist. He was an artist, inventor, author, teacher and humanitarian concerned about the plight of the poor and disadvantaged in society. His concern for helping poor farmers—as he said “the man farthest down”—revolutionized agricultural practices in the South and paved the way for a better life for all. George Washington Carver was a man of deep faith in God. His practical approach to science was continuously influenced by his faith. His early morning walks in the woods served to help him reconcile his faith in God with the natural beauty of the land in a way that inspired him to seek a life of service for the greater good of all people. He viewed the world holistically and understood that his gifts in the field of science and agriculture were meant to serve a larger reality.
The Carver Medal is given to individuals who have distinguished themselves through service. To people who have, like Dr. Carver, used their gifts and imagination to serve as an inspiration to others. To individuals who have demonstrated leadership and conviction; advanced the fields of science, education, the arts, or religion; and dedicated themselves to addressing humanitarian issues. The medal and lecture series pay tribute to Dr. Carver’s legacy at Simpson and the College’s commitment to fostering a diverse learning environment throughout its history.
The Carver Medal was crafted by Jean-Marie Salem. Born in Iowa City in 1968, Salem grew up in Dubuque and Des Moines, Iowa and attended Simpson College, graduating in 1991 with a B.A. She completed her M.F.A. in Sculpture in 1999 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in West Des Moines.
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.
– George Washington Carver
Carver fellows
The Carver Fellowship is one of the most prestigious academic awards offered by Simpson College. This scholarship is awarded to outstanding first-year and transfer students from distinctive and broadly diverse backgrounds who exhibit potential for leadership, evidence of service, contributions to community, and superior academic achievement in secondary school.
Carver fellows 2024 – 2025:
Teria Campbell ’24
Nadia Murobyi ’25
Kylie Rae Torres ’25
2025 George Washington Carver Day
Celebration Planning Committee:
Seth Andersen
Director, John C. Culver Public Policy Center, Simpson College
Mara Bailey ’06 Chaplain, Simpson College
Amy Duncan Editor & Publisher, Indianola Independent Advocate & Indianola Record-Herald
Cyd Dyer College Librarian & Archivist, Simpson College
Elodie Opstad Community historian and author, This is the Place: Glimpses of Warren County, Iowa
Alisa Reynolds-Good Director of Marketing & Strategic Communication, Simpson College
Allison Sigaran-Serpas ’27
Undergraduate Assistant, John C. Culver Public Policy Center, Simpson College
Amanda Zwanziger President and CEO, Indianola Chamber of Commerce
Previous Carver Lecturers
Dr. Luther S. Williams
Dr. Herma B. Williams
Dr. Brian L. Johnson
Bishop Melvin G. Talbert
Dr. Gwendolyn E. Boyd
Brig. Gen. Clara L. Adams-Ender
Rev. Fred Luter, Jr.
Lt. General Russell C. Davis
Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole
The Iowa Tuskegee Airmen
Simon Estes
Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright
Clarence Page
Alan Page
David Baker
Rosetta E. Ross
Houston A. Baker, Jr.
Bishop Leontine T.C. Kelly
Robert M. Franklin
Toi Derricotte
Richard G. Hatcher
Sharon Pratt Kelly
Vincent G. Harding
James H. Cone
Bernard W. Franklin
Bishop Charles Jordan
Shirley Chisholm
Donald Stewart
Robert C. Maynard
Benjamin Payton
Bishop James Thomas
Jesse L. Jackson
William J. Raspberry
J. Herman Blake
Eleanor Holmes Norton
John B. Slaughter
Donald Hugh Smith
Mary Frances Berry
C. T. Vivian
Toni Cade Bambara
Lerone Bennett, Jr.
Margaret Bush Wilson
John Hope Franklin
James Harris
H. Henry Parker
Darwin T. Turner
Honorable Mike Espy
Alphonso Michael (Mike) Espy was born on November 30, 1953, and raised in Yazoo City, Mississippi. His grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Huddleston Sr., was the son of slaves and became an entrepreneur in the post-Reconstruction South. Huddleston created a community economic organization, Afro-American Sons and Daughters, which owned and operated a workers’ compensation insurance company; a weekly newspaper with one hundred thousand subscribers (The Century Voice); and a sharecropper’s bank.
Espy’s father and mother graduated from Tuskegee College. His father, who studied under Professor George Washington Carver, became the first African American USDA County Agent in Arkansas.
Espy graduated high school in 1971 as one of 17 students who integrated the formerly all-white Yazoo City High School in 1969. He then graduated from Howard University in 1975, majoring in Political Science and Economics. In 1978, he earned his law degree from Santa Clara University Law School and has been licensed to practice law in Mississippi and in state and federal courts since 1978. He recently completed a Fellowship at the Harvard University School of Business (ALI 2024) after a one-year on-campus course of study.
Espy began his legal career representing the indigent in Mississippi as an attorney associated with Central Mississippi Legal Services. He accepted a statewide appointment as Assistant Secretary of State and Director of the Mississippi Public Lands Division in 1980, the first African American to hold the position. After four years of service, he became an Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Mississippi Consumer Protection and Medicaid Fraud Divisions.
In 1986, Espy won a seat in the United States House of Representatives (MS-2), defeating a two-term Republican incumbent to become the first African American elected to Congress from Mississippi since Reconstruction. He served on the Agriculture and Budget Committees, the Select Committee on Hunger, and as vice president of the Democratic Leadership Council. In his first term, he authored the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Act, which created an economic development zone to target national resources on impoverished areas of seven states lying along the Mississippi River. He also auhored the Community Development Bank Act.
In 1992, President Bill Clinton nominated Espy to become Secretary of Agriculture. As the youngest, first, and still the only African American to hold that cabinet position, he is credited with reforming the national food inspection system to achieve science-based techniques to rapidly discover food-borne pathogens in the food supply. He authorized and financed a national program for rural households to access clean, potable, in-home running water (Water 2000) and was designated by President Clinton as national Recovery Coordinator after the 1993 Midwestern flood, which had catastrophic impacts on Central
Iowa. President Clinton appointed Espy as principal negotiator of the nation’s agricultural trade portfolio during the GATT and NAFTA multi-lateral treaty negotiations. He designed the restructuring of the USDA bureaucracy in 1993 to achieve more efficient performances and to elevate the rural development and nutrition missions of the agency.
Currently, Espy practices law as Mike Espy, PLLC in Jackson, Mississippi. His clients include local and state governments, international food charities and agricultural organizations and companies. He has represented nation-states in political and agriculture transactions; was appointed to the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee in the Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Spill litigation; was counsel in the Pigford II litigation (USDA discrimination against Black farmers); and participated in the NFL concussion lawsuits.
In 2018 and 2020, Mike Espy was the Democratic nominee for the U. S. Senate from the State of Mississippi. In the 2018 run-off, he received 46.4 percent of the vote. In 2020, Mike garnered the highest number of votes of any Democrat in Mississippi’s history in a federal race.
Espy currently serves as Chair of CNFA (Creating New Frontiers in Agriculture), an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of production agriculture in 44 countries. CNFA facilitates USAID and USDA financed projects in Africa, near Asia, and Eastern Europe, and works with the USG to introduce agriculturebased technology, training, finance, and products to increase yields, incomes, and the economic fortunes of farmers across the globe.
Simpson College thanks Green State Credit Union and Allison & Jim Fleming for their generous contributions in support of the 2025 George Washington Carver Medal.
Simpson College is a private, liberal arts college located in Indianola, Iowa with online offerings. Founded in 1860, the college has 1,268 undergraduate and graduate students. Simpson offers 74 undergraduate majors, minors and programs in addition to three graduate-level programs. Outside of the classroom, Simpson is a member of the NCAA Division III American Rivers Conference, hosts eight Greek houses on campus and sponsors many extracurricular options for student involvement.
Indianola,
Iowa