Seeing the need for a strong program in scientific agriculture that would benefit the public in the Kilgore and East Texas area, Kilgore College president Dr. Cruce Stark approached the Bruce McMillan, Jr. Foundation of Overton about a partnership between the two parties in a letter dated December 14, 1962.

A meeting was held at the First State Bank of Overton on February 14, 1963, to explore the proposed agriculture project for Kilgore College.  Participating were members of the Foundation (Ralph Ward, Sr., John L. Pope, Donald B. Leverett), KC Board of Trustees (Dr. George Kutch, A.G. Morton, Sr., Herb Knauth), and KC Administration (Dr. Cruce Stark, Dean Randolph Watson, Business Manager Austin Kay).

A delegation from Kilgore College (Dr. Stark, Dean Watson, Trustee Board President Donald Leverett—also a McMillan Foundation trustee) and the Foundation (Managing Trustee Ralph Ward, Sr.) met with A&M officials in College Station to discuss the proposed project with Gen. Earl Rudder, President of Texas A&M College; Dr. R.E. Patterson, Dean of the Agriculture School; Dr. G.M. Watkins, Director of Agricultural Instruction; Dr. R.D. Lewis, Director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station; and Dr. John Hutchinson, Director of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.

It was decided at the A&M meeting that the KC project would serve three main purposes.  It would afford direct information to farmers and ranchers in the area; it would provide a laboratory for KC students studying or majoring in agriculture; and would allow the College to offer terminal courses in agriculture.

The Board of Trustees of the Bruce McMillan, Jr. Foundation voted unanimously on July 27, 1963, to proceed with the Kilgore College Agricultural Project with a grant package to (1) lease 448 acres at no cost for 25 years with a 25-year option; (2) transfer 15 cows from the existing herd, plus various farm equipment; and (3) financially commit a grant of $75,000 (which later grew to $90,000) for teaching facilities and instructor’s residence and miscellaneous farm buildings on the premises.  The project was to be located on the Foundation’s East Farm (north of State Highway 135, west of Rusk County Road 133, and east of Little Rabbit Creek) about two miles from downtown Overton, or about nine miles from the Kilgore College campus.

Scientific agriculture officially became a part of the Kilgore College curriculum with a historic agreement signed by the College and Foundation on November 6, 1963.  The pact provided for “a demonstration farm or farms to be located in Rusk County for the purposes of teaching and demonstrating modern and scientific methods of farming to farmers and others without charge, and to maintain and operate such demonstration farm without a view of profit but for the purpose of applying its income over and above amounts sufficient to maintain and operate such demonstration farms for use of other institutions of public charity.”

Wayne Lacy, a native of Wellington in the Texas Panhandle, moved to Overton in August 1963, in preparation to become Kilgore College’s first agriculture instructor and farm manager that fall.  Lacy earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural education from A&M and had taught vocational agriculture at A&M Consolidated High School in College Station for two years.

Lacy encountered the difficult task of beginning an agricultural program from ground zero, then transforming it over a 17-year period into one of the nation’s most revered community college agricultural programs.

In 1965, two years after Lacy began, the direction of the KC Agricultural Program took a slightly different twist upon creation of the Texas A&M University Agricultural Research  & Extension Center north of Overton, also on Foundation property.  With its establishment, the KC Farm no longer had as its primary mission to be a research or demonstration farm.  However, various scientific educational projects were continued for the benefit of students.

Lacy is credited with beginning every program currently maintained on the farm with the exception of the sheep, which was initiated by this successor, Jeff Grote.  Included in the innovations Lacy originated are the famed Bull Evaluation Center, the only such test center between Dallas and Shreveport, Paris and College Station.

Jeff Grote, a Mason, Texas, native, replaced Lacy in 1980.  Grote, too, was a two-time A&M graduate who brought sheep to KC and worked, as did Lacy, to promote KC Agriculture Club activities at the state level.  Grote resigned in 1992 to become a high school counselor at Mason High School, his hometown.  The amiable Grote had served as Chairman of the Rusk County Youth Project Show and was well known in the area for his support of different types of youth activities, one of the more prominent of those being youth baseball.

Robert G. Young, an Axtell, Texas, native (near Waco) who held bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Sam Houston State University, replaced Grote in 1992.  A former fertilizer business owner and vocational agriculture teacher, Young brought an impressive marketing/agribusiness background to the position.  During his tenure, Young has added alfalfa, millet, and hybrid Sudan research plots to the agronomic repertoire of the College Farm.  He made the important decision to bring Angus cattle to the Farm and upgrade the herd for educational study and promote quality animals for the KC Cattle Show Team, which he also initiated.  His daughters, Christie and Kara, brought the first goats to the farm through their donation of 4-H and FFA projects.

Through his strong support of the Texas Junior College Agriculture Association (TJCAA), the KC Agriculture Club continues to be the club to beat to become to capture the state’s top award, the “Outstanding Chapter in Texas.”  KC annually places two students (the most allowed per chapter) on the TJCAA state officer team and normally places one or two students among the top three places for “Outstanding Student.”