George K. Peugh, founder of the Pattonsburg ag program was honored with the dedication of the new Pattonsburg vocational agriculture building.
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On Saturday, Jan. 15, George K. Peugh was honored with the dedication of the new Pattonsburg vocational agriculture building in his name.
Mr. Peugh started the ag program at the school back in 1956. He taught there for 31 years.
He’s been retired from teaching for over 10 years. These days he likes to hang out at the local cafe and “drink tea and harass people.”
The locals will tell you Mr. Peugh likes to joke and kid and tell a whopper or two.
“I was in the checkout line at a grocery store. The young lady at the cash register said, ‘I hear they’re going to name a building after you.’ I didn’t know what she was talking about. I had to come back to town to find out.”
Mr. Peugh says there were many changes in agricultural education during his tenure and after. Typically, his classes consisted of 40 to 50 high school boys. For several years, he had every boy in school in class. Mr. Peugh was as much a father figure as a teacher to the young men, and one very big change was the admittance of girls into the ag program.
“They let girls in just about the time I quit. I wasn’t too fond of the idea. Teenage boys are reluctant to discuss their problems in the presence of girls. I’m sure I’ve had boys ask me questions they wouldn’t have asked if girls were there. I thought they should have had a strictly boys’ class where they could express their concerns and opinions. But that’s neither here nor there. There have been a lot of fine young ladies in the ag program since I’ve retired.”
“Computers in the classroom were another big change,” says Mr. Peugh. “I couldn’t turn one on.”
Altogether Mr. Peugh taught school for 37 years. He put in six years at Cainsville before coming to Pattonsburg in 1950. He was born west of Mount Moriah. He served in the Marine Corps.
Farming has changed, too, since Mr. Peugh was a young man.
“When I was in high school and helped my father, we farmed with horses. There were no chemicals, maybe fertilizer. Farming has changed a thousand percent even since I quit. Maybe for the better. I don’t know.”
Mr. Peugh says we should worry about the family farm.
“We’re going to lose a lot of good talent by going to bigger farms. They know how to farm, but they can’t compete.”
Mr. Peugh lives three or four miles north of Pattonsburg.
I built a house when I came down here and I’ve lived there ever since.”
He and his wife, Vera, will be married for 57 years this July. They have two daughters — Suzanne is a teacher at John Glenn in Savannah in the St. Joseph school district and has three adopted sons; Phyllis lives in Huntsville, Ark., where her husband is a dentist.
Mr. Peugh says he has always been interested in farm mechanics. He has a little shop at his home.
“I work on lawn mowers and do little welding jobs. It keeps me busy and out of trouble.”