Thomas inducted into National 4-H Hall of Fame

Monday, October 11, 2021
Darrel Thomas

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Indiana State University graduate with a degree in recreation, Darrel Thomas didn’t fit the mold of a “county agent” back in the late 1960s.

However, as part of what he was later told was “an experiment” Thomas was hired as an assistant ag agent in Fountain County.

Apparently, that experiment paid off, as the longtime 4-H youth educator in Putnam County is one of 20 laureates set to be inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

Among those 19 others is, ironically, Putnam County native Bryan Chadd, who has served as a 4-H educator in Arizona since 1984.

“One of my kids is in the class as well — Bryan Chadd from South Putnam,” Thomas noted. “That’s never happened before in all of this.”

Read more about Chadd here, but back to that experiment with Thomas. While the Extension service maintains heavy links to the farm in 2021, they were much stronger half a century ago.

“The official policy was in order for you to be able to do the 4-H program, you had to have an ag degree or a home ec degree,” Thomas said. “My only farm experience was on my grandfather’s farm in central Illinois, once a summer for about 10 years.

“They told me seven or eight years later, ‘You were an experiment. There were a lot of people looking at you because you didn’t have an ag degree.’ And my response was, ‘What’s that got to do with working with kids?’”

Thomas wasn’t the only one with eyes on him in those early days.

“I was the second one they hired that didn’t have an ag degree,” Thomas recalled. “In fact, the first three that they hired without ag backgrounds were all Indiana State graduates with recreation degrees. We knew each other and, of course, none of that came up in the discussion.”

Fortunately for Thomas and the others, they came along at a time of attitude and policy change within Purdue Extension and the state 4-H program particularly.

“We got a gentleman who go appointed state 4-H leader who was a teacher and that whole thing changed,” Thomas said. “Within two years’ time, we went from being ‘assistant county agent’ to ‘4-H educator.’ In that whole realm, we became teachers — educators instead of farm-oriented. It didn’t make any difference what section you worked for, you had the 4-H educator title. And since then we’ve changed the name two or three times.”

Thomas’ 4-H experience began in the 1950s and ’60s, when he was a 10-year member of the Honey Creek 4-H Club in Vigo County. He particularly enjoyed the electric and photography projects.

A 1964 graduate of Honey Creek High School in Terre Haute, Thomas graduated from ISU four years later and was hired as an assistant ag county agent in Fountain County.

A year later, though, Thomas was called into active duty with the U.S. Naval Reserve.

“I went from black and gold to Navy blue. I spent 14 months in Vietnam,” Thomas said.

Then in February of 1971, Thomas found his way to Putnam County as the youth Extension agent, where he spent the next 31 years.

“They had a place for me that I could fit and I came here,” he said.

In his time in Putnam County, which included the titles of Extension educator and Extension director, Thomas not only supervised a 4-H program of 800 members and 300 volunteers, but also initiated the Mini Farm Fest event for fourth-graders in the county, as well as the SPARK program, in cooperation with Greencastle Parks and Recreation. He was also a strong supporter of the 4-H Camp program.

Professionally, Thomas was passionate about expanding and extending the profession of 4-H agent/educator/professional. He was active in the Indiana Association of Extension 4-H Agents, serving as president in 1988.

This presidential experience boosted him into leadership of the National Association of 4-H Agents, the organization that nominated him for his current honor. Thomas served on the national board of the association as the North Central Region director in the early 1990s.

Honored for his continued leadership, Thomas was also presented the Sagamore of the Wabash in 2001, the year he retired.

In retirement, Thomas also established scholarships with the Indiana 4-H Foundation in memory of his wife Diana, who passed away in 2019.

Outside of Extension, Thomas was also president of the initial Putnam County Leadership Academy committee, served on the Greencastle Park Board and Putnam County Plan Commission, as well as four terms on the Putnam County Council, including nine years as president.

The nomination has given Thomas the opportunity to take stock of the years he’s spent in service of the county.

“It’s been a humbling experience -- extremely humbling,” Thomas said. “Especially when you sit down and had to think about what you did, what you do on a daily basis and who all that affected. At least in this point in time, I thought I was a pretty good Extension agent. We didn’t lose any programming. I was very much a traditionalist. There were things that I saw coming down the pike that were among the reasons I retired.”

Among these changes was having to pay to join 4-H.

“ I couldn’t see doing that, but I understood where they were coming from,” Thomas said. “Money is important and publications were the biggest expense, other than the personnel, and it really came from the university. I guess it’s worked out all right.”

Looking back on his career, Thomas admits that even as a “youth educator” his role involved more interaction with the adults who, in turn, interacted directly with the kids. Still, seeing all the work that went into the county fair coming together every year was gratifying.

Asked many times over the years, “What do you do now that the county fair is over?” Thomas said he developed the following answer:

I am the superintendent of informal education for a mid-size county of 35,000. I have a responsibility for 1,000 students in 27 classrooms. There are 40 classroom teachers and a curriculum encompassing 50 subjects, all developed by the resources of a major university or a federal agency. I have a school board to answer to and a locally-elected committee provides oversight, evaluation and program development.

So, you see, 4-H is not just the county fair ... I’m busy all year.

Of course, over 32 years, there were some memories of different sorts as well. For much of Thomas’ career, the Extension Office was in the Putnam County Courthouse, and he remembers when an inmate jumped over the third-floor railing of the Putnam County Courthouse, landing very near longtime Extension secretary Shirley Ruark, who was walking across the lobby.

Thomas had a harrowing experience of his own in that lobby.

“I was working one night and I needed to go to the restroom,” Thomas said. “The U.S. Navy had a cardboard cutout of a sailor that stood right there by the Veterans Affairs Office. I heard a little something and turned around and there was this guy standing there. It took my breath away.”

The memory that gets Thomas laughing the most, though, was when he saw a man emerge from the Double D tavern one day.

“I saw a guy come out of the old Double D tavern and get into my car to take a nap,” Thomas said. “I told Shirley Ruark when I stepped out, ‘I gotta go get a drunk out of my car.’ She watched me as I walked across the street, shook that guy by the arm and said, ‘You’re in the wrong car, bud, this is my car.’”

It’s safe to say none of these stories will come up in Thomas’ speech Tuesday, though he has been preparing those remarks.

“They said ‘Not more than three minutes.’ Thirty-two years and they give you three minutes,” he laughed. “So I’ve been practicing my speech, sitting out on my front porch. I work up my speech and it’s never the same and I always end up bawling at the end.”

It’s an understandable wave of emotions. Though Diana isn’t there with him, he still has daughters Lisa Chadd and Kara Hazlett. There is actually a party of 13 that made the trip to Washington with him.

“There are a number of members of my family who’ve never been to Washington, D.C.,” Thomas said. “So, part of it’s a vacation.”

He also plans to invite the first youth educator who mentored him, hiring him for two summers when he was in college.

“He lives around Washington, D.C., somewhere. I’ve sent an invitation and called him on the phone,” Thomas said. “He’s 90-some years old and hopefully he can come. That will be different. The last time I saw him was at my retirement dinner. We have a lot in common, a lot of things to talk about, and I hope he gets to come.”

In the end, Thomas will almost certainly be overwhelmed and humbled by the experience.

“That’s not a dream that I had. Sometimes you work for dreams,” Thomas said. “I knew there was a national Hall of Fame, but how do you work for that?”

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  • Congratulations Darrel. Enjoy the event!

    -- Posted by joepaula on Tue, Oct 12, 2021, at 7:10 AM
  • Congratulations Darrel. So lucky to have known you for many years.

    -- Posted by Lookout on Tue, Oct 12, 2021, at 12:00 PM
  • Congratulations, Darrel. Terrific!

    -- Posted by Rita Schendel on Tue, Oct 12, 2021, at 3:37 PM
  • Many congratulations Darrel. Great story Jared.

    -- Posted by Nit on Tue, Oct 12, 2021, at 8:04 PM
  • Congratulations - well earned!

    -- Posted by Jenni Artis on Wed, Oct 13, 2021, at 8:27 AM
  • To a great leader. Congratulations on all the wonderful leadership you gave to the youth of Putnam County. Enjoy this recognition, it is well deserved.

    -- Posted by momma-j on Wed, Oct 13, 2021, at 10:34 PM
  • Congratulations Darrel and thanks for your leadership where we see the foundation of the local Extension and 4-H program that has been blessed with continuity.

    -- Posted by eoffice on Fri, Oct 22, 2021, at 10:47 PM
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