Nationally recognized agriculturalist and conservation visionary John W. Parris of Columbia has received the Clemson Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.

The Campobello native graduated from Clemson in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education. He began his professional career by teaching agri-science and technology for eight years in Chester and Anderson Counties.

In 1966, Parris became associate director of the State Soil and Water Conservation Commission and served in that position for five years. Then in 1972, he was promoted to executive director of the agency that became the State Land Resources Commission.

Parris led in promoting the enactment of significant natural resource conservation and environmental improvement legislation in areas including Mining and Mined-Land Reclamation, Dams and Reservoir Safety, Sediment Reduction and Stormwater Management, Landscape Architect Registration, Soil Classifiers Registration, state income tax credits for the purchase of drip irrigation installation equipment and conservation tillage planters, increased state funding to conservation districts, increased state funding to expedite the completion of the state soil survey in concert with the USDA Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service), taxation of agricultural and forest land according to its present use, changing the title of conservation district officials to commissioners and urban flood control projects.

Retiring from the Land Resources Agency in 1994, Parris became interim director of the Clemson University Sandhill Research and Education Center for two years. In 1996, he became state director of public affairs for Agricultural Education and the FFA (formerly known as the Future Farmers of America) in South Carolina and served in that position of 16 years until his 75th birthday. He is now director of the South Carolina Agri-News Service, a voluntary position.

A widely recognized leader in natural resource conservation education, Parris hosted a weekly television show on WFBC-TV (now WYFF TV) in Greenville for five years before becoming executive director of the South Carolina Land Resources Commission.

He was the founder and charter trustee of the South Carolina Conservation Districts Foundation and established the first State Conservation Workshop for Youth. Additionally, Parris served as chairman of the first tri-state dams and reservoir safety conference that led to the National Association of Safe Dam Officials, the first southeastern mined-land reclamation conference, the first eastern states conference on drip irrigation and coordinated the first aerial conservation study tour of South Carolina by helicopters.

Parris received a number of prestigious awards including the Alpha Gamma Rho National Scholarship as the Outstanding 4-H Boy in the Nation based on leadership, scholarship and achievement. He was named Man of the Year in Agriculture by the PROGRESSIVE FARMER magazine and received the National FFA Organization’s VIP Award, the International Erosion Control Association’s Distinguished Service Award, the National Professional Conservationist Award, the Centennial Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award by Clemson University and the Order of the Palmetto.

Among his many leadership roles for Clemson, Parris is a charter member and past chairman of Clemson University’s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences Alumni Board. He led in securing approval by the State Commission on Higher Education for a landscape architecture major at Clemson. He recommended the inclusion of Youth Day in the annual Ag Tailgate event.

Prior to serving as interim director of the Sandhill Research and Education Center, Parris chaired its advisory committee. The John W. Parris Agricultural Leadership Endowment, administered by the Clemson University Foundation, provides scholarships to agriculture students annually. The community activities of Parris include life membership in the South Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical Society. He also holds membership in the Columbia Rotary Club, the Capital City Club, the First Baptist Church of Columbia, the SC Association of Agricultural Educators and the SC Farm Bureau.

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