Troy Buck

Troy Buck has spent 46 years in vocational agriculture, leading two of the state’s largest FFA chapters and affecting the lives of countless students along the way. A native of Alpine (ClarkCounty), Buck earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agriculture at theUniversityofArkansas. Buck taught for 21 years at Hope, where he built the Hope FFA chapter into the largest in the state. He then moved to Amity, where they started the state’s first – and still only – custom meat processing lab for high school students. In the lab, he has trained many meat cutters who have gone on to make a living with that trade. The Amity FFA chapter won the National Building Our American Communities award in 1992 for restoring the old school building at Alpine and turning it into the Alpine Community Center. The consolidation of the Amity and Glenwood school districts created the Centerpoint school district, and the FFA chapter there now ranks as the largest in the state, with roughly 300 students participating. The FFA chapter operates out of a new $1.5 million custom meats lab, and the Olds Foundation recently provided a grant to buy 98 acres for a school farm. In 2000, the Centerpoint FFA chapter was recognized as the National Outstanding Vo-Ag Program inAmerica. Buck served several years as president of the Arkansas Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association, and currently serves as its legislative liaison. He is on the state board of Arkansas Farm Bureau and a director for Region 5 of Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas. In that position, he recently received the national Phelps-Martin Award for outstanding service to agriculture and rural communities. He also is a member of both theClarkandPikeCountyfair boards. In 2004, Buck received the Dr. Dan Pilkington Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education, the highest honor granted by the Arkansas School Boards Association. He is a three-time recipient of the Ag Teacher of the Year Award. Buck currently farms 400 acres, most of which is in pasture or hay. He runs roughly 100 head of beef cattle, operates two breeder hen houses, and producesBermudahay sold primarily to the racehorse market inHot Springs. Buck is an active volunteer in his community, serving as a certified first responder, where he helped establish a rural fire department and community water system, helped establish and build an ambulance service facility, and continues to feed the elderly and visit them in their homes, in the hospital and in nursing homes.