FRANCIS PRESSLY INDUCTION INTO THE 4-H HALL OF FAME AND THE NORTH CAROLINA 4-H HALL OF FAME

The following information was taken from The National 4-H Hall of Fame website:

http://nae4ha.com/hof/fpressly.html

W. Francis Pressly

Director of Domestic & International Programs, National 4-H Council

Hometown: Stony Point, NC

Nominated by: National 4-H Council

Major 4-H Accomplishments:

Iredell Co. 4-H member. National 4-H Congress, Report to the Nation team, and Thomas E. Wilson Citizenship Award scholarship recipient. Led National 4-H Foundation Brazil 4-S Peace Corps Project. Director of 4-H International Programs and later Managing Director of Programs, National 4-H Council.

Honors:

NC 4-H Leadership Award, 1949; 4-H Public Speaking Award, 1949; Southern Region 4-H Dairy Production Winner, 1946. IFYE Fellowship, 1957

-58. NC 4-H Hall of Fame, 2009. IFYE Association Meritorious Service Award, 2004. NC 4-H Development Fund Board of Directors and Executive Committee, 1987-89. NAE4-HA Distinguished Service Award, 1981. Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, 2011.

Biography:

Francis Pressly established his excellence early as an Iredell County 4-H member. He won numerous state project awards, attended National 4-H Congress, served on the Report to the Nation team, and was a Thomas E. Wilson Citizenship Award scholarship recipient. Motivated by his 4-H successes, Pressly extended his skills and development impact to NC 4-H, then Italy, Brazil and the world. Pressly was 4-H Agent in Davidson County and helped transition 4-H Clubs to community based settings. From 1962 to 1984 he devoted his talents to the National 4-H Foundation/Council, where his international interests firmly established him as a recognized authority on youth programming.

Beginning in 1962, Pressly led the National 4-H Foundation Brazil 4-S Peace Corps Project for the expansion of rural youth clubs. Its success motivated Peace Corps to fund similar projects in other countries. In 1965, Pressly became Director of 4-H International Programs overseeing 4-H international exchanges, development and training projects. He helped initiate the Youth Development Project in seven countries and was the prime force behind the Young Agricultural Specialist Exchange Program with the Soviet Union. He was later named Managing Director of Programs, covering both domestic and international programs. After retirement, he and his wife Sibyl restored and operated the Mast Farm Inn, Valle Crucis, NC.

Quote:

For many who grow up in 4-H, the life skills learned influence everything they go on to do. You take those lessons, that personal growth, that broadened perspective and apply it to your career. Any difference I may have made was in some way shaped by my experience in 4-H. 4-H for me, like for so many others, was the beginning of everything. It was the door to the rest of my life.

Francis Pressly with "4-H Report to the Nation" team presents to President Eisenhower in 1953. To view another photograph and the information related to this historical event, please click the link shown at the beginning. There are more photographs…at this site: North Carolina State University Historical Archives.

Francis Pressly at the inauguration of a new 4-S Club in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil in 1963.

Francis Pressly at the inauguration of a new 4-S Club in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil in 1963.

ABOUT US

The main purpose of this webpage is to gather information and make it available to those looking for Peace Corps groups and its projects. This one is especially dedicated the to the first Peace Corps Project to Brazil, organized by the National 4-H Clubs Center in Chevy Chase, MD, from January 1962 to December 1963.Since 1982 we have celebrated many group reunions around the the United States and Puerto Rico: twice at the National 4-H Clubs Center in Washington, D.C.; Bozeman, Montana, Auburn, Alabama; Valle Crucis, North Carolina, Colorado and New Jersey. Our most recent reunion was held at the National 4-H Clubs Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland to commemorate our fiftieth anniversary along with the Peace Corps Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration in Washington, DC., September 2011.