Carl Sr Obit

Obituary of Carl E Ferguson Sr

Carl Edwin Ferguson, Sr, age 99, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, formerly of Springfield, Missouri and Washington, D.C. died April 22, 2016 following a brief illness at his residence at Capstone Village, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Interment will be at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, May 10, 2016 in Springfield Veterans Cemetery, Springfield, Missouri.  A memorial service to be followed by a reception will be held at 1:30 p.m., Friday, June 10, 2016 at Capstone Village, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

He is survived by his son, Carl E Ferguson, Jr and wife Katie of Mentone, Alabama; two grandchildren, Susan Ferguson Sluser of Nashville, Tennessee and Joshua William Ferguson and wife Meredith of New York, New York; four great-granddaughters, Elizabeth and Catherine Sluser of Nashville, Tennessee, and Ella and Evelyn Ferguson of New York, New York; his brother, Burl Glen Ferguson of Titusville, Florida; numerous nieces and nephews; and his Capstone Village family.

He was preceded in death by his parents Flora Hankins Ferguson and William Horace Ferguson of Butterfield, Missouri; his wife of 60 years, Faye Westmoreland Ferguson; and two of his brothers James Rex Ferguson and William Eugene Ferguson.

He was born on September 18, 1916 on a small rural farm in Butterfield, Missouri. He graduated in 1941 from the University of Missouri—Columbia with a Ph.D. in Soils Science. He loved the University of Missouri and credited the university and his professors with whatever success he enjoyed throughout his career. Following graduation, he worked briefly for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From July 1942 to February 1946 he was a survey officer with the 75th Division Artillery serving with distinction in the Battle of the Bulge.  Immediately after the war, he taught for six years at Texas A&M College of Agriculture.  From 1949 to 1950, he was asked to serve as an agronomist with the Marshall Plan.  Based in Paris, France he worked with the U.S. Economic Cooperation Administration to help restore agriculture across the European continent—and so began a 30 year career of government service.

Over the next thirty years he and his wife Faye traveled the world in an effort to help build and foster agricultural programs in developing countries.  His work took him to Baghdad, Iraq (1954-1956); Port-au-Prince, Haiti (1956-1959);  Rabat, Morocco (1959-1962); Dakar, Senegal (1962-1964); AID African Bureau, Washington, D.C. (1964-1969); back to Rabat, Morocco (1969-1974); Tunis, Tunisia (1974-1978); and finally, Washington, D.C. (1978-1979).  In each country he worked with local agricultural specialists to establish and manage experiment stations whose goal was to increase the quality and quantity of the country’s food production—essential to the economic development and wellbeing of the nation.  Though a very modest man, he was justifiably proud that America, his country, cared enough for those less fortunate nation states of the world to invest time and treasure to help them grow and prosper.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Ferguson Graduate Student Award, University of Missouri, Office of Advancement, 2-4 Agriculture Building, Columbia, MO 65211.