- George Washington Carver
Born in 1864 near the end of the Civil War, George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist who helped move the South away from its dependence on cotton.
Carver earned his high school diploma while working as a farmhand, his college degree while working as the school janitor. Later, after receiving his master's degree, he became the first African American to serve on the faculty of what is now Iowa State University.
His specialty was the agriculture of the South. He developed a system for crop rotation and worked on industrial applications for the agricultural produce of the southern states. But, with only three exceptions, Carver never patented his discoveries.
"God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?" he would say.
George Washington Carver is said to have turned down a salary of $100,000 (probably worth $1 million today) so that he could continue his research.
In 1938, he donated more that $30,000 of his savings to the George Washington Carver Foundation, with the rest of his estate going to the foundation upon his death in 1943.
On his tombstone is written: "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."
- Little Burgundy Book, Diocese of Saginaw