Hall of Fame posthumous induction for Seneca’s Marvin Cely

The late Marvin Cely Jr. of Seneca and three of his colleagues have been named by Clemson University to the Frank Lever County Extension Agent Hall of Fame.  The portraits of Cely, Betty Baird, Carroll Preston Culbertson and Henry L. Eason will hang in Barre Hall, home of the Clemson Extension offices. The Hall of Fame, created in 2014, honors the careers of “longtime, front-line county agents” whose work had an important economic impact on the communities they served. A 30-year veteran of Clemson Extension, Cely began his career in 1957, serving as an assistant county agent in Oconee and Dillon counties, ultimately rising to become the assistant district leader for the Piedmont region. During his travels in rural South Carolina as a county agent, Cely saw firsthand the needs of the indigent and tried to meet some of those needs one family at a time. “Children may be poor,” he said, “but they still believe in Santa Claus.” His personal charity grew to become organized as Marvin’s Kids, a program founded in 1979 that continues today with more than 300 volunteers through Saint Mark United Methodist Church in Seneca.