Harold C. Blanchard Named 2009 Distinguished Alumnus by NC State University College of Natural Resources

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Tilla Fearn

NEWS RELEASE  - February 9, 2009
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Tilla Fearn 919.513.4644 or tilla_fearn@ncsu.edu

The College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University is pleased to announce the selection of our 2009 Distinguished Alumnus.  Harold C. “Butch” Blanchard ’63 of Whiteville, N.C. was selected in recognition of his distinguished career as a forest manager and his many contributions to his profession, his community and the college.  Blanchard accepted the honor January 29, 2010 at the NC State University Alumni Association’s “Evening of Stars” Gala in Raleigh.
Blanchard attended what was then the NC State School of Forestry on a four-year scholarship from the Continental Can Company. Later, he was awarded the George K. Slocum Scholarship. Blanchard earned five varsity letters in three track-and-field sports at NC State and was recognized as an ACC Outstanding Scholar-Athlete in 1963. Several years after graduating, Blanchard and his father, a practicing forester, began a forestry consulting business. Operating today as H.C. Blanchard and Associates, the company has provided land and timber sales, appraisals and forest management services for landowners with 275,000 wooded acres.

One of Blanchard’s many contributions to the college was serving as president of the North Carolina Forestry Foundation Board of Directors. During his term, Blanchard led a reorganization and consolidation of funds that pushed foundation assets over $1 million, helped retire the mortgage debt on the Hofmann Forest and later was instrumental in establishing active management of the forest to fund numerous undergraduate and graduate scholarships.
According to Blanchard, he “was proudest at a scholarship dinner when (he) counted 26 undergraduate and graduate scholarships funded from Hofmann Forest receipts.”  Blanchard left the board of directors in 1985 to assume the responsibility of Hofmann Forest manager, a position he held for 23 years. Under his management the forest returned more than $13 million to the college in needed support; support which played an incalculable role in the college’s growth into the national leader in natural resource education, research and service it is today. In addition to his support of the college over the years through his professional responsibilities - in 1998 Blanchard and his wife, Peggy, established the Harold E. and Gerda C. Blanchard Endowed Scholarship for young men and women who begin their studies at Southeastern Community College and continue their studies in natural resources at NC State University.

Blanchard is a member of the Society of American Foresters, the North Carolina Foresters Association, the North Carolina Society of Consulting Foresters, the National Woodlands Association and the Forest Farmers Association.

Active in his home community, Blanchard is a charter stockholder of Topsail National Bank and served on the board of Columbus National Bank where he assisted in its successful merger with successor Triangle Bank.  When not working Blanchard acts in local theater productions and had a role in "Bastard Out of Carolina" directed by Angelica Houston;  is a 12 time national sailing champion of Tanzer 16 sailboats; is a deacon, elder and sunday school teacher at Whiteville First Presbyterian Church; and played a major role in the founding of the North Carolina Museum of Forestry in Whiteville, North Carolina.