Interview with Mike Duff, October 1, 1985

Interview Summary

Mike Duff is interviewed by his "wife and partner", Muriel Duff. Mike Duff was born at Allais, Kentucky, near Hazard, March 28, 1922". He graduated from Witherspoon College High School in 1941, and attended Berea College from 1941-1943, until he joined the Army. While in the service, he received a certificate in Geology from American University in 1945. After World War II, Duff came to the University of Kentucky, where he received his B. S. in Agriculture in 1947. He received his M.S. degree in Dairy Science from Ohio State University in 1950. In 1960, Duff earned his Ph.D. in Extension Administration, with assistance from the Kellogg Foundation, at the University of Wisconsin. Duff talks about his early experiences with the U.K. College of Agriculture and Extension Services. After graduation from U.K., he worked with the Veteran's Teaching Program in Sadieville, Scott County, Kentucky, where he helped veterans after the war learn how to farm more efficiently. Duff was also a vocational agriculture instructor at Irvine, Estill County, Kentucky, and worked with the Kentucky Poultry Improvement Association. He notes these experiences helped him later in his career as an extension specialist. He talks about his many appointments with the College of Agriculture and Cooperative Extension Service as a specialist in various counties and as Assistant Director of Development Programs.

Duff discusses his work as coordinator with the Rural Development Program, an inter-agency group program focusing their resources statewide. He assisted in many training workshops and agent training programs, and served as an advisor in Chile from 1962-1963, with the United States Agency for Rural Institute of Development. He also traveled to Notre Dame University in 1964 and 1965, and assisted in training Peace Corp volunteers to work with this overseas program. He talks at length about the improvements made in people's lives as a result of the Appalachian Resource Development Project, later called the Eastern Kentucky Resource Development Project (E.K.R.D.P.), funded by the Kellogg Foundation, and carried out by the UK's College of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service from 1961-1968 in thirty counties of Eastern Kentucky. The E.K.R.D.P. ended in 1969 and was integrated into the Cooperative Extension program. Duff refers to problems and successes with the Appalachian Community Impact Project (A.C.I.P.), a related project which focused on "reaching the un-reached" in Breathitt, Leslie, and Perry counties. In 1972, he became a Specialist for Development Programs. Duff talks about the history, formation, and implementation of the Kentucky Development Committee. He is asked to mention his many awards, the publications he has contributed to, and to talk about his family.

Interview Keyword

Kentucky's Cooperative Extension Service

Interview LC Subject

Agriculture. Duff, Mike, 1922- Duff, Mike, 1922- --Interviews University of Kentucky University of Kentucky--History University of Kentucky. Cooperative Extension Service

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.