Clifton McNeill Jr. accepted this honor and accolades for his love of farming with a humble grace.
But the honor, he wanted us to know, was not his alone.
“It’s an honor,” McNeill, 75, said after being enshrined Friday as the 59th inductee into the Cumberland County Agricultural Hall of Fame at the Judge E. Maurice Braswell Cumberland County Courthouse and later honored at the Kiwanis Club of Fayetteville annual Farm City Week luncheon at the Honeycutt Recreation Center. “I owe so much of it to my daddy.”
Kevin Riddle, a protégé under McNeill, was honored as the 2024 Young Farmer of the Year. Riddle learned farming from his father, Britt Riddle, and later worked as a teenager with James Autry on Autry Farms. Riddle took over the McNeill Strawberry Patch in 2016, with Clifton McNeill Jr. as his mentor.
More than 100 people turned out for the luncheon. Among the attendees were state legislators, Cumberland Board of County Commissioners Chair Glenn Adams, former commissioners and farmers, including Joe and Jimmy Gillis.
“The Cumberland County Agricultural Hall of Fame was started in 1989 for those who have made a significant contribution to agriculture,” said Lisa Benzaquen Childers, the county extension director. “And this could not have worked out better. We have Kevin, and his mentor.”
Childers described McNeill as a farmer of wise counsel and integrity, and always putting others before himself. His place along the agricultural landscape, she said, is respected throughout this county and statewide.
“He has always been a champion and supporter of agriculture,” said Wayne Collier, who is president of the Cumberland County Farm Bureau and a member of the county’s Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors. “He always paid attention to detail, and he is truly one of those good people.”
Born into farming
There’s no telling today where the blue “Future Farmers of America” jacket might be — the one Clifton McNeill Jr. wore throughout the hallways of the old Gray’s Creek High School in the mid-1960s.
It was the signature jacket of young students, who were sons of farmers, at schools such as Seventy-First, Pine Forest, Central and Stedman high schools, and those country boys from Gray’s Creek High.
Agriculture was in their blood, from the Gillis brothers and the Hubbard boys out Seventy-First way to Clifton McNeill Jr., who grew up on the rural farm along Chicken Foot Road, where he learned from his late father about growing and harvesting tobacco, potatoes, cabbage, greenhouse tomatoes, and those “Sweet Charlie” strawberries ripe for picking each spring.
Clifton McNeill Jr. was a student leader and athlete at the old Gray’s Creek High School, where he led the late Ben Martin’s boys’ basketball team, aka “Martin’s Midgets,” to that 1965 Tri-County 2-A Tournament championship with a 54-51 victory over heavily favored Seventy-First at the old Fayetteville High School gymnasium.
He left the family farm to pursue a degree in agricultural engineering at N.C. State University, graduating in 1971 before working as an environmental engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation Division 6 for the ensuing 30 years, where McNeill was responsible for roadways and bridges in Cumberland, Bladen, Columbus, Harnett and Robeson counties.
He was a supervisor of grass and trees in rights-of-way, litter collection and beautification to include planting wildflowers that motorists enjoy at highway interchanges.
In a father’s farming footsteps
The family farm never was far from his heart. His passion for farming was something Clifton McNeill Jr., shared with his late father, Clifton McNeill, who was the 35th inductee enshrined into the Cumberland County Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1997. Clifton McNeill Sr. died at age 88 on Nov. 14, 2015.
“His daddy was a wonderful man,” said Susan Walters, who grew up in Gray’s Creek and has known McNeill since childhood. “When his daddy was sick, he quit everything to take care of his daddy.”
During his father’s declining health, McNeill remained committed to agriculture, serving on the Cumberland County Farm Bureau Advisory Board and continuing to support the agricultural community.
He served as a supervisor on the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District Board for 12 years, where McNeill was instrumental in approving thousands of dollars in cost-sharing funding for local farmers and property owners.
McNeill has remained a steadfast supporter of the FFA program at Gray’s Creek High School, where he has contributed to grant funding and provided access to the family farm for students pursuing agricultural careers.
He has served on the Cumberland County Board of Adjustment, the Cumberland County Planning Board and the South River Electric Membership Corporation Board of Directors.
“As appropriate of an award for him as can be,” Dennis Walters said of his longtime friend.
Glenn Riddle would agree.
“Clifton Jr. is so deserving of this honor,” Riddle said. “Clifton Jr .and his dad have been mainstays of the Gray’s Creek community for many years. Clifton Jr. graduated from N.C. State and returned to his home community of Gray’s Creek to become an outstanding farmer, church member and community leader. The McNeill’s had one of the first successful strawberry farms in Cumberland County.
“Even though I was a couple of years older, I had the pleasure of playing high school sports with Clifton Jr. He was an outstanding baseball catcher and a guard on the basketball team, who allowed us to be somewhat successful through our high school careers.
“Clifton Jr.’s induction is a well-deserved honor,” Riddle said.
Epilogue
“He has always been a friend to Cumberland County,” said Glenn Adams, the county commissioner, before casting his eyes toward McNeill. “You deserve it. You’ve been a mentor to young farmers, and your strawberries are delicious.”
This was a poignant day for a farmer’s farmer.
Clifton McNeill Jr. has his late father’s kind blue eyes, and the same heart for helping others along life’s way with farming dreams of their own.
“His daddy,” Susan Walters said, “would be so proud of him.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
We’re in our third year of CityView Today, and so many of you have been with us from day one in our efforts to bring the news of the city, county, community and Cape Fear region each day. We’re here with a purpose — to deliver the news that matters to you.
