1 of 2
Former Chester High students of ag educator and conservationist John Parris gathered in Lowrys to celebrate his 86th birthday.
Photo by Josh P. Crotzer
2 of 2
Charles Banks (middle), retired from the USDA, and Jeff Wilson (right), owner of Cotton Hill Farms, catch up with their former ag teacher, John Parris.
Photo by Josh P. Crotzer
In the 1960s, just outside the small community of Lowrys, there was the farm used by Chester High School’s agriculture education program. After lessons in the field, ag teacher John Parris would transport his students—all loaded in his Ford Falcon—from that farm back to the high school, arriving just in time for them to be late to their next class.
“We would wipe off what was on our shoes on the desk in front of us,” mischievously recounts John Roberts, one of Parris’s former students and a trustee at Fairfield Electric Cooperative. “So everyone knew that John’s boys had been there.”
John’s boys continue to leave tracks throughout South Carolina. Thanks in part to his guidance, influence and personal network throughout the state, those boys became leaders in agriculture, conservation, public policy and various other fields. On May 28, dozens of them gathered at the old Lowrys Schoolhouse—now a community center and just down the road from the old Chester High farm—in a celebration of Parris’s 86th birthday and to pay tribute to the man who had sowed much of their future.
“I think he probably influenced me as much as any teacher because he loved agriculture and he loved people,” says Jeff Wilson, who owns Cotton Hill Farms in Chester. “Even after he left here, he always kept abreast to what we were doing. He was always willing to help us.”
Parris left Chester in 1964 to become the ag teacher for Anderson City Schools. Two years later, he began a long career with the SC Soil and Water Conservation Commission, later to become the S.C. Land Resources Commission. During his 22 years as executive director there, in addition to many successful legislative efforts, Parris introduced and promoted agricultural innovations such as no-till conservation farming and drip irrigation to South Carolina’s farms.
No matter what he accomplished or where his career took him, Parris was always willing to help his former students.
“My father died when I was 14 years old,” says Ronnie Foster, who credits Parris for helping him get accepted to Berry College. “John came along and became my father, in a sense. He was that type of guy.”
Parris was there for Foster again after college, providing a recommendation for a job with the Soil Conservation Service, where Foster worked for 37 years.
Another former Chester High student, Wayne Beam, joined Parris at the Land Resources Commission when he finished college.
“That was quite an experience,” says Beam, who would go on to run the South Carolina Coastal League for 20 years. “He knew everybody, and it really helped me meet a lot of people in Columbia to get started.”
Beam is one of two former Parris students who earned a Ph.D. The other is Roberts, who enjoys recounting the lecture he, Beam and two other ag students received—and ignored—from a school guidance counselor.
“They told us we were going to college, so we should be taking Latin instead of agriculture,” says Roberts. “Of the four in that room, two of us earned Ph.D.s, and the other two have master’s degrees.”
When he was a teacher, Parris and his students were heavily involved in Future Farmers of America (FFA) programs. Many of them earned state and national FFA honors. Upon his retirement from the Land Resources Commission, Parris returned to those roots, directing the state organization’s public affairs until 2011. Since then, he’s been director of the state’s agricultural news service, a division of Clemson Cooperative Extension.
His influence also continues to impact the lives of young people. Beam and his wife established the John W. Parris Agricultural Scholarship Endowment, which benefits outstanding Clemson students in the College Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences. He’s also well known for hosting students, ag alumni and other young professionals at his favorite lunch spot, the Capital City Club in Columbia.
“I have heard his name all throughout the year,” says FFA state president Cayden Gates, who made Parris’s birthday celebration a part of his statewide tour of agricultural events. “South Carolina
agriculture and FFA education wouldn’t be what it is without him.”
Through the years, Parris’s impact on South Carolina has garnered dozens of awards and honors—including the Order of the Palmetto, Man of the Year in Agriculture, and most recently, Clemson University Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award. But, in that old schoolhouse this past May, he favored the fellowship and respect of his “boys.”
“This is, without question, the highlight of my life in terms of a recognition,” says Parris. “It’s unbelievable. Hopefully, we can do this again in a couple of years.”
___
Get More
Distinguished Service Award—A proud graduate of Clemson University, John Parris earned the school’s Distinguished Service Award and was profiled with this story and video by his alma mater.