First Black to be Inducted into the Hall of Fame at Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences by Vincent Samuels

George E. Russell, Winston and Marilyn

Samuels named to College of Agriculture and

Life Sciences 2013 Hall of Fame

The spirits of the Samuels and Dennis Ancestors who treaded the hilly terrain of “Dry Hill”, Glenbournie, Westmoreland, one hand holding crocus bags slung over their shoulders and agricultural forks in the fingers, cutlasses (machetes) held firmly in the other hand –tools of their peasant farming livelihood – who resided on the rocky terrain of “Mount Ease”, Flint Valley and Long Ground, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica, West Indies to Cape Coast Castle, the Atlantic Slave Trade Seaport in Ghana, West Africa where hands and feet manacled, they were hustled like cattle through the Door Of No Return through the underground tunnel and loaded on to canoes which took them to the Merchant Slave Ship that was anchored in the Atlantic Ocean on which they underwent inhumane treatment on the trip to Jamaica where on arrival they were sold to White Slave Masters.

The spirits of all the Ancestors named herein, reverberated with loud cheers in the corridors of Virginia Tech College, Roanoke, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA at 2.00 p.m. on March 22, 2013 as Dr. Winston A. Samuels, Ph.D., Jamaican/American, Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased) Alumnus, New Market, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica, West Indies, President and CEO of Maxx Performance, Inc., Chester, New York, USA, Achiever, Trailblazer, and Philanthropist, became the first black man to be inducted in The Hall of Fame at Virginia College of Agriculture and Life Science in 100 years!!

Additional information pertaining to Dr. Winston A. Samuels’s historic induction in The Hall of Fame at Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will be made available in Volume 14 of BOSA Newsletter that will be published online at BOSA website in July 2013.

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 5, 2013 – George E. Russell of Blacksburg, Va., and Winston and Marilyn Samuels of Warwick, N.Y., are the 2012-13 inductees into the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Hall of Fame. 

Their selection is the result of their outstanding service to the college, university, and the agricultural and life sciences communities.

“We are extremely grateful to these individuals for their generosity and for all of the support they have provided to the college over a great many years,” said Alan Grant, dean of the college. “We are stronger today because of the work they have done on behalf of the university and the college.”

Winston and Marilyn Samuels

Winston Samuels completed his master’s degree and doctoral degree in animal science at Virginia Tech while Marilyn earned her Bachelor of Science degree at Virginia Tech and her master’s degree in psychology at Radford University.

After successful careers, the couple cofounded Maxx Performance Inc. in Chester, N.Y., in 2004, and now share leadership of the company and its financial management. Their successful entrepreneurial venture is a progressive biotechnology company that improves the functionality of raw ingredients for food and health by manufacturing and marketing of microencapsulated ingredients and delivery systems. The Samuels moved their production plant to Roanoke, Va., in 2012 in order to stimulate high tech business development in the region.

Before launching Maxx Performance, Winston was vice president and general manager of Balchem Corporation, a publicly traded specialty chemical company. While under his leadership, Business Week and Forbes recognized Balchem as one of the 100 Hottest Growth Companies in 2002. In a previous position at Monsanto, Winston quickly rose through the ranks to manage the company’s $200 million phosphate business.

In 2008, the Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences recognized him as its outstanding alumnus.

The Samuels have long shared their success by funding academic and student affairs programs at Virginia Tech. Their first donation underwrote graduate student travel shortly after they themselves received their graduate degrees.

They also support animal science research, the Graduate School, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean’s Fund for Excellence, Multicultural Affairs, Women in Leadership and Philanthropy, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Alumni Organization’s Scramble for Scholars, and the ice hockey program. Most recently, the Samuels established the Samuels Family Enrichment Fund to support student travel abroad.