The Pioneer Award – Doc Oliver

You would think that Ken Oliver is the man he is because of his career path. Part of that is true. Just because he’s an educator doesn’t mean that’s all he’s done. It definitely doesn’t mean all that he has done was because he was an educator.

Kenny Oliver is a veteran. When he got out of the military, he started teaching school. Even though he’s from Lowes he had to move out of the area just to get started. But once he moved back into Graves County it didn’t take him long to move to Fancy Farm. He took over the Ag program at Fancy Farm in 1980. And that’s where I met him.

Doc (I seriously don’t know where that nickname came from), has been very involved in all ways in Fancy Farm. While he taught there, he made sure to teach all forms of agriculture. While he never taught me in the classroom, he taught me an awful lot about agriculture and character building. He took kids to the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, the World’s Fair in Knoxville, TN, and the Kentucky State Fair every year. He sat on the Graves County Fair Board for years and implemented the 4H, FFA, and Open Livestock competitions. To this day he will still work with kids who are competing even though he hasn’t been an Ag teacher in many, many years. He has helped my kids get ready for FFA competitions and to show cows. He doesn’t make a big deal of it, he just offers “suggestions”.

Not a lot of people know this, but Doc started the little league football program in the Graves County schools. This came from his love of the game. But he also knew that it would bring kids into the football program at Graves County Middle School and Graves County High School. He was an assistant coach for the Eagles for years.

Doc has been involved in other volunteer activities throughout Mayfield and Graves County. Even though you might think that it was part of his job to distribute trees from the Department of Forestry, it isn’t really. But he’s the first one there on those days, getting everything lined up and organized to make the process easier. He brings donuts.

Doc began helping me in Fancy Farm, line up the 4th of July Parade. He worked as a family member would be at the St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic. He worked registration at the One Mile Classic and stayed in the meat stand on picnic day until the job was done. He started that when he taught at Fancy Farm, and he still does it today. He loves being able to see his former students, and others that he has known for years. Everyone knows him and you can’t walk around the picnic grounds without someone hollering “Hey Doc”. Shoot, he even brings donuts to the meat stand because everyone knows you don’t need to eat BBQ at 7AM Saturday morning.

I won’t tell all the stories on him but ask him about the time he took a crew to an area county fair to compete in the Wild Cow Milking Contest.

Doc recently retired again, this time from the NRCS. In that job he worked one-on-one with farmers, educating them about the best use of their land.

Even though he is now officially “retired”, we feel that he will continue to help us out in any way we need him. And I’m sure he’ll be in the meat stand year in and year out.

I am proud to join with other Fancy Farm and Graves County High School graduates that he has inspired over the years to nominate Doc Oliver for the Pioneer Award.

Jimmy Elder