The late Ruth Current, a Rowan County native, was inducted into the Jane S. McKimmon Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS) Hall of Fame during the FCS centennial celebration on May 25 at North Carolina State University’s Jane S. McKimmon Center in Raleigh.
Current began her career as dietician for the Methodist Orphanage in Winston-Salem, then served as an extension home demonstration agent in Iredell County, district home agent in the Southwest, and assistant state 4-H leader. In 1937, Current was named state agent to succeed Dr. Jane S. McKimmon. She served in this position until 1957, when she was named assistant director of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service in charge of the state’s home economics program.
Among many awards and honors, Current was named “Woman of the Year” in 1947 by The Progressive Farmer magazine. In 1954, she received the U.S. Department of Agriculture Superior Service Award, and in 1976 she was elected to the North Carolina Agriculture Hall of Fame.
Current is one of 25 inductees into the first class of the FCS Hall of Fame.
Family and Consumer Sciences professionals serve citizens in all the state’s 100 counties and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. Today’s FCS programs focus on many of the same issues they have over the past 100 years — nutrition, food preservation and food safety, child development and family relations, family resource management, housing and energy management.
The FCS Hall of Fame induction ceremony was a highlight of the May 25 centennial celebration, as well as the unveiling of a new book about the history of the organization: Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Service: To Family, Community, and North Carolina. For more information about the centennial, visit: www.ces. ncsu.edu/depts/ fcs/Centennial/centennial-event.php.