I met with Clarence Durban at his home in Plain City, Ohio. I have known him my whole life but I had no idea about what a remarkable man he was and still is today. He has experienced so much and accomplished many remarkable things throughout his life time. Clarence is a great speaker and this made the interview very easy for me. Here is his story.
Well it’s uh 70 years ago I graduated from high school, Chuckery Darby High School, Unionville Center, 1939. In 1940 I had short courses at OSU University at the College of Agriculture. Then the war came along, World War II and we had too much work to do at home on the farm so I was back there, my brother left for the service. Then in ’43 I went to service, World War II. I was overseas in the Navy aboard a destroyer. We went into a mine or torpedo or something off the coast of Italy. In ’44 brought the ship back to New York.
I lost all my hair at that time and it was pretty bad because of the injury being bad and I was an engineer in the engine room. So there were a couple fellows didn’t make it, but I did, I was lucky. But uh, then we went to the South Pacific, went to Cuba first, through the Panama Canal, South Pacific and they dropped the first Atomic Bomb. Stopped us on our way to Japan and we turned around and came back home. I was eventually discharged from the Navy and started farming. Come home bought a farm, started farming and been in the agriculture business ever since. As a result of that, I was involved with Natural Resources with the state, at the state level, I was the State President. I was also the National Director of the National Association of Conservation Districts and I was actually the President. As a result of that, I traveled all over the country and was in every state in the Union.
It was mostly promoting the wise use of the natural resources of the country which included timber, farming and agriculture. I was involved with that and with those programs. I had programs in every state in the union including Guam and was in Guam helping them organize their District. Eventually I was sent to North Africa by Aid for International Development, United State Department of Agriculture to dedicate the first conservation district on the Continent of Africa.
I was a speaker there to some 3,000 native Africans in those 2 districts that started the Conversation District. They were desperate. They were hungry. They hadn’t been able to grow rice because the salt water was intruding up the river and so forth and the river was so polluted with subsoil and so forth and top soil that had washed off. We had to keep the water out. So there were dikes built and things of that nature. And I was there, as I say on behalf of USDA Aid for International Development. Met with those Chiefs and those tribes and we don’t realize what hunger is ‘til to see a gnarled old Indian Chief of one of those tribes cry when he tells you he has enough rice in the bin--took me out and showed it to me--for his tribe for the winter. So they were gonna have enough to eat. There had been times that they hadn’t had enough. It uh, that was, that was an experience.
As a result of that I was invited when I finally came back, was invited to the White House by President Reagan on 2 occasions. On one he and Secretary of Agriculture Jack Lott was there we reviewed the 1985 Farm Bill which had to do with the wise use of the National Resources in this country with the new law. I was then invited back when he signed the legislation eventually, 2 or 3 months later. So I had a lot of experiences with that. You know, Nicole, I wasn’t nervous then. Afterwards I thought, oh he’s a man, he’s just somebody else, and he was. I went in. He was just as calm as could be. “How are you?” Sat right across the table in the Oval Office, in front of the desk—it’s more of a table than a desk, the table was as big as this room. But he was very nice. Jack Block stood there. When we went in there, could not have been nicer. They took me then, Jack Block did, Secretary of Agriculture, to a news conference. What really floored me was he had me open the new conference. There’s all these reporters sitting out there and he said, “Go ahead, open his news conference.” Whoa! So I thought, well, so I just told them what I was there for and what was going on. They had a few questions. Obviously they weren’t interested, that interested in me, they wanted to talk to Jack Block or President Reagan , Reagan wasn’t there at the news conference, but Block was. So that was, that’ll get you think a little bit.
The Farm Bill was changed to the benefit of agriculture and all the resources of the country at the same time. So we accomplished several things with that Farm Bill, some of which are still in effect today. Yes, there are always things that need to be changed, but there are always those that try to find a way to cheat. We will always have that. We always have and that was a frustration. But you soon learn as you meet with the committees of Congress and testimony on this legislation, which I did on several occasions and it was going through the process of being developed. You go with some of the thing that happened, you don’t like it. You try to change it. You change what you can and what you can’t you operate and go ahead and get the best you can get out of it. So it’s never, whenever the government comes up with a program its never perfect and probably never will be, so we do the best we can. And that’s what we did with the National Association of Conservation Districts.
You forget that sometimes, but that’s absolutely the case where they’re doing it out of the goodness of their heart for their fellow man, wanting to make things better for somebody who doesn’t have the way to do it, doesn’t know how to do it and make some changes in some practices. We used to take a plow and plow in the fall everywhere. Now you don’t see that any more. That’s a whole new process. A lot of it came about because of some things that came from those early ‘30’s when this program was started and we had the opportunity to come in and get some of those things in operation. The same thing is true with the armed forces, with the Navy, with Air Corps, any of them. There’s good people there that work together. They have training and we can’t be thankful enough to realize just how much benefit we have from people that just wanted to make it better for somebody else and put their life on the line in a lot of cases, to help us. As I said earlier, I was fortunate when I came off the ship, to have gotten off after we got back to New York. But I did it because of the type of training that we had.
I went on later to ask Clarence about some awards he had gotten throughout the years. This what he had to say.
National Award for Outstanding Effort in the Conservation Field from the NICD. The Conservation Achievement Award from the Department of, Ohio Water Department, and then the Department of Natural Resources. Conservation Achievement Award from the Department of Natural Resources. I was inducted into the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources, both. That picture hangs in the Rhodes Building at the State Fair Grounds. Then there’s another picture over in the Department of Natural Resources over on Morse Road that’s in the hallway for Conservation Achievement Award. ………… 13, five 13 there was a drainage bill and we got the drainage laws changed in the state. I put a lot of time on that. There were some rough times there because you had people, you hoped you were doing what was the right thing to do. You hoped we needed those laws changed to improve the drainage systems in the state. Rivers and streams, people claimed keep the banks seeded, keep them from eroding back in and that bill was passed and my name is on that, numerous times. Some people appreciated it and some people didn’t like me at all.
Well it’s uh 70 years ago I graduated from high school, Chuckery Darby High School, Unionville Center, 1939. In 1940 I had short courses at OSU University at the College of Agriculture. Then the war came along, World War II and we had too much work to do at home on the farm so I was back there, my brother left for the service. Then in ’43 I went to service, World War II. I was overseas in the Navy aboard a destroyer. We went into a mine or torpedo or something off the coast of Italy. In ’44 brought the ship back to New York.
I lost all my hair at that time and it was pretty bad because of the injury being bad and I was an engineer in the engine room. So there were a couple fellows didn’t make it, but I did, I was lucky. But uh, then we went to the South Pacific, went to Cuba first, through the Panama Canal, South Pacific and they dropped the first Atomic Bomb. Stopped us on our way to Japan and we turned around and came back home. I was eventually discharged from the Navy and started farming. Come home bought a farm, started farming and been in the agriculture business ever since. As a result of that, I was involved with Natural Resources with the state, at the state level, I was the State President. I was also the National Director of the National Association of Conservation Districts and I was actually the President. As a result of that, I traveled all over the country and was in every state in the Union.
It was mostly promoting the wise use of the natural resources of the country which included timber, farming and agriculture. I was involved with that and with those programs. I had programs in every state in the union including Guam and was in Guam helping them organize their District. Eventually I was sent to North Africa by Aid for International Development, United State Department of Agriculture to dedicate the first conservation district on the Continent of Africa.
I was a speaker there to some 3,000 native Africans in those 2 districts that started the Conversation District. They were desperate. They were hungry. They hadn’t been able to grow rice because the salt water was intruding up the river and so forth and the river was so polluted with subsoil and so forth and top soil that had washed off. We had to keep the water out. So there were dikes built and things of that nature. And I was there, as I say on behalf of USDA Aid for International Development. Met with those Chiefs and those tribes and we don’t realize what hunger is ‘til to see a gnarled old Indian Chief of one of those tribes cry when he tells you he has enough rice in the bin--took me out and showed it to me--for his tribe for the winter. So they were gonna have enough to eat. There had been times that they hadn’t had enough. It uh, that was, that was an experience.
As a result of that I was invited when I finally came back, was invited to the White House by President Reagan on 2 occasions. On one he and Secretary of Agriculture Jack Lott was there we reviewed the 1985 Farm Bill which had to do with the wise use of the National Resources in this country with the new law. I was then invited back when he signed the legislation eventually, 2 or 3 months later. So I had a lot of experiences with that. You know, Nicole, I wasn’t nervous then. Afterwards I thought, oh he’s a man, he’s just somebody else, and he was. I went in. He was just as calm as could be. “How are you?” Sat right across the table in the Oval Office, in front of the desk—it’s more of a table than a desk, the table was as big as this room. But he was very nice. Jack Block stood there. When we went in there, could not have been nicer. They took me then, Jack Block did, Secretary of Agriculture, to a news conference. What really floored me was he had me open the new conference. There’s all these reporters sitting out there and he said, “Go ahead, open his news conference.” Whoa! So I thought, well, so I just told them what I was there for and what was going on. They had a few questions. Obviously they weren’t interested, that interested in me, they wanted to talk to Jack Block or President Reagan , Reagan wasn’t there at the news conference, but Block was. So that was, that’ll get you think a little bit.
The Farm Bill was changed to the benefit of agriculture and all the resources of the country at the same time. So we accomplished several things with that Farm Bill, some of which are still in effect today. Yes, there are always things that need to be changed, but there are always those that try to find a way to cheat. We will always have that. We always have and that was a frustration. But you soon learn as you meet with the committees of Congress and testimony on this legislation, which I did on several occasions and it was going through the process of being developed. You go with some of the thing that happened, you don’t like it. You try to change it. You change what you can and what you can’t you operate and go ahead and get the best you can get out of it. So it’s never, whenever the government comes up with a program its never perfect and probably never will be, so we do the best we can. And that’s what we did with the National Association of Conservation Districts.
You forget that sometimes, but that’s absolutely the case where they’re doing it out of the goodness of their heart for their fellow man, wanting to make things better for somebody who doesn’t have the way to do it, doesn’t know how to do it and make some changes in some practices. We used to take a plow and plow in the fall everywhere. Now you don’t see that any more. That’s a whole new process. A lot of it came about because of some things that came from those early ‘30’s when this program was started and we had the opportunity to come in and get some of those things in operation. The same thing is true with the armed forces, with the Navy, with Air Corps, any of them. There’s good people there that work together. They have training and we can’t be thankful enough to realize just how much benefit we have from people that just wanted to make it better for somebody else and put their life on the line in a lot of cases, to help us. As I said earlier, I was fortunate when I came off the ship, to have gotten off after we got back to New York. But I did it because of the type of training that we had.
I went on later to ask Clarence about some awards he had gotten throughout the years. This what he had to say.
National Award for Outstanding Effort in the Conservation Field from the NICD. The Conservation Achievement Award from the Department of, Ohio Water Department, and then the Department of Natural Resources. Conservation Achievement Award from the Department of Natural Resources. I was inducted into the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources, both. That picture hangs in the Rhodes Building at the State Fair Grounds. Then there’s another picture over in the Department of Natural Resources over on Morse Road that’s in the hallway for Conservation Achievement Award. ………… 13, five 13 there was a drainage bill and we got the drainage laws changed in the state. I put a lot of time on that. There were some rough times there because you had people, you hoped you were doing what was the right thing to do. You hoped we needed those laws changed to improve the drainage systems in the state. Rivers and streams, people claimed keep the banks seeded, keep them from eroding back in and that bill was passed and my name is on that, numerous times. Some people appreciated it and some people didn’t like me at all.
Nice Work :)
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