The very picture of a farmer, Bruce Graham is tall and sturdy. Clean-cut and soft-spoken with work-thickened hands and patience that seems grown from working the land, he and his family have farmed and ranched for generations.
If one had only a single word to describe him, it might be one not particularly in vogue these days: balanced. Many others could do. Pragmatic. Kind. Inquisitive.
The fascinating thing about Graham is that as you get to know him, more words keep coming to mind, and he unfolds into an unceasingly surprising man whose outward demeanor belies a mind that never stops moving, especially when it comes to making the world a better place.
“If somebody says, ‘What’s your motto?’ or ‘What’s your goal?’ or ‘What do you live for?’ my idea is to make everywhere I go better than when I got there,” Graham said recently.
Now retired, Graham was the architect of the Renewable Energy Department at Cloud County Community College (CCCC), where he has nurtured an idea into a groundbreaking program offering multiple degrees and certificates to dozens of students from Kansas and beyond.
While his sentiments may strike some as a little cliched, Bruce’s sincerity gives them a compelling resonance. You can’t help but nod as he shares them.
“Before I leave, I want where I was to be better, and I’ll go on to somewhere else and I’ll make it better, and I’ll go on to somewhere else,” Graham said. “And it may only be picking up cigarette butts off the ground. It might be picking up an aluminum can and recycling it. Very small things. But as you do all of those and you put them all together in a lifetime, it makes a difference.”
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Photo Credit: gettyimage-jamesbrey
Categories: Kansas, Education, Energy