Harold Blanchard

The Jackson-Blanchard Hofmann Forest Managers Scholarship Endowment was created through a merger of the Harold E. and Gerda C. Blanchard Endowment Scholarship and the G. Eddie Jackson Memorial Scholarship in 2016. The scholarship appropriately honors two longtime serving Hofmann Forest managers by providing scholarships for students in NC State’s College of Natural Resources studying forest management. Both men shared similar paths through NC State, consulting careers, forest products industry and service to their communities. Their combined years of management and development of the Hofmann Forest exceeds 73 years.

G. Eddie Jackson was a 1935 graduate of NC State and an active, loyal supporter of the School of Forestry and the Wolfpack Club. In 1986, he was a recipient of the NC State University Meritorious Service Award. In addition to an outstanding individual career in the forestry industry, Mr. Jackson was also instrumental in the development of the profession. In fact, he was largely responsible for organizing the N.C. Society of Consulting Foresters in 1967. He was the organization’s first president as well as past president of the North Carolina Forestry Association and Chairman of the North Carolina Forestry Foundation, Inc. One of his most rewarding accomplishments was the honor to serve twice as the Supervisor of the Hofmann Forest. Active in his home community, Eddie also served as president of the Washington Rotary Club.

Harold C. “Butch” Blanchard was selected as the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Natural Resources in recognition of his distinguished career as a forest manager and his many contributions to his profession, his community, and the college.
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. He 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, he 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.
Blanchard is a member of the Society of American Foresters, NC Chapter of the Association of Consulting Foresters, NC Forestry Association, and the National Woodland Owners Association.
Active in his home community, Blanchard served on the board of Columbus National Bank where he assisted in its successful merger with successor Triangle Bank and is a charter stockholder of Topsail National Bank. When not working Blanchard acts in local theater productions and had a role in “Bastard Out of Carolina”, partially filmed in Whiteville and 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.