Hurricane Harvey rolls over Texas Gulf Coast A14 PANORAMA Romantic comedy classic opens Sumter Little Theatre Neil Simon’s ‘Barefoot in the Park’ kicks off season A5 SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 SUNDAY, AUGUST 27, 2017 $1.75 SPORTS: Sumter, Lakewood, Wilson Hall, Manning all win B1 ‘It is a thing of beauty’ NASA scientist goes whole hog for traditional barbecue BY JIM HILLEY
[email protected] oward Conyers never in- tended to become somewhat of a “cooking celebrity.” H The aerospace engineer at the Stennis Space Center near Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, said he learned to cook whole-hog barbecue growing up in Paxville. “My father was good at it, my uncle was good at it, a lot of different indi- viduals around Paxville were good at whole-hog barbecue,” Conyers said. As Sumter Item readers know, whole-hog barbecue is a time-honored tradition in the Palmetto State. Conyers said he decided to cook up a hog for an event in nearby New Or- leans, promoting brain cancer re- search called “Hogs for a Cause.” He didn’t tell anyone he was a “rock- et scientist.” “Someone Googled and found out I was a NASA rocket scientist then they said ‘We have a NASA rocket scientist who claims to cook whole-hog barbe- cue.’” That promotional hook started Conyers’ celebrity chef career, he said, including an appearance on an epi- sode of the Cooking Channel’s “Man Fire Food” in June. The Clarendon County native grad- uated from Manning High School in 2000. He also graduated from North Caro- lina AT&T University, majoring in en- vironmental engineering, and received a master’s and a doctorate from Duke PHOTO PROVIDED NASA scientist Howard Conyers, a native of Paxville and 2000 graduate of Manning High School, said he thought he would become SEE HOG, PAGE A6 famous for his engineering not his whole-hog barbecue.