George Washington Carver
Famous for coming up with over a hundred uses for the peanut, Carver also championed the sweet potato and soy beans as diverse, multi-use crops. He also innovated educational techniques by literally taking his students out in the fields to study crops firsthand. In addition, Carver outfitted wagons as “mobile classrooms” that he took throughout the countryside to the farmers themselves, since he knew that the people who needed his findings the most probably would not have time, money, or inclination to go to college. But Carver knew changes had to be made, and he wasn’t afraid to take the power of knowledge to others.
After retiring, George Washington Carver enjoyed two decades of being a semi-celebrity and unofficial ambassador for Tuskegee, peanuts, and American farmers. He donated a considerable sum of his life savings to establish an educational museum at Tuskegee that would honor his work and share it with the world. Carver remains a true pioneer, a man undeterred by circumstances and committed to following his instinct for success throughout the course of his life.