Services for Richland County native and agriculture expert, Carl Colvin, 87, Champaign, Illinois were September 17 at University Place Christian Church, with burial in Bement Cemetery.

Mr. Colvin died September 14, 1976 at Mercy Hospital. Born in Richland County April 3, 1889 to W.E. and Lydia (Jackson) Colvin, he attended Richland County Schools and received bachelor’s (1912), master’s (1920), and doctorate (1934) degrees in agriculture from the University of Illinois.

He was a 1906 graduate of Olney High School.

He married Helen Schmidt of Ivesdale in 1912. She is his only survivor.

His teaching assignments were at Bloomington High School, Blackburn College, and Eastern Illinois State Teachers College, now Eastern Illinois University.

In 1918 he was named an assistant in Agriculture Extension at UI, and six months later became an associate professor.

In 1924, Mr. Colvin was appointed by President Coolidge as Director of Education for Haiti and Assistant Director General of Technical Service for the Republic. He became Director General in 1930. He edited two series of text books for use in the Haitian schools.

Following this, he was a land bank appraiser with the U.S. Farm Credit Administration and in 1933 became special assistant to the Land Bank Commissioner in Washington, D.C. He was Assistant Deputy Land Bank Commissioner from 1936 to 1946.

From 1946 to 1948, under the War Surplus Property Act, he was Director of Surplus property as well as Deputy Land Bank Commissioner. In 1948 he was advanced to Deputy Governor of the Farm Service Administration in charge of Finance and Accounts and Administrative Divisions. He was Deputy Governor of Farm Credit Administrations from 1952 to 1955. He retired in June 1955.

He was a member of University Place Christian Church and Elder Emeritus of that church as well as of the National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C. He served on the board of the Illinois Disciples Foundation and was its president for two terms.

Mr. Colvin was a member of the University of Illinois Foundation and of the University of Illinois Presidents Club, a member of Kiwanis, Delta Phi, Alpha Zeta and Phi Delta Kappa.

In 1948 he received the Award for Superior Service from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Published in Olney Daily Mail (IL) – September 21, 1976