Smith Scholars to create opportunity and honor lives of achievement

Talent and hard work are the keys to college, career and a life of achievement. Right? The American Dream notwithstanding, Lanty Smith, ’64, would tell you opportunity deserves to be on that key ring.

Fate kept Smith’s parents out of college and on their modest farm in rural Ohio. They passed on their love of learning to their four children. In their case, fate found resistance, and three of them attended Wittenberg.

Next spring the Ellen and Lloyd Smith Memorial Scholars Program will start cheating fate for future Wittenberg students by providing the university's only full-tuition scholarships — up to eight at one time.

Smith and his wife Margaret created the tribute to his parents to honor what they could give him — a respect and love for learning — and what they couldn’t — college.

An expanded scholarship commitment of endowment income and cash totaling more than $1 million has created the Smith Scholars Program.

Smith scholarships will technically be merit scholarships, which will be a powerful tool for attracting some of the nation’s finest students to Wittenberg, according to Director of Admission Ken Benne.

But the scholarship criteria give a strong preference to helping gifted students who could not attend Wittenberg without a full scholarship.

“What we’re trying to do is encourage individuals who might not otherwise have an opportunity to enjoy what Wittenberg offers,” Smith said. “I hope it will make for a richer campus but also a stronger alumni body.

It simply seems most appropriate to give back to Wittenberg in the way Wittenberg gave to me.” Neither Ellen nor Lloyd ever attended college, but they always loved learning.

In their rural farm community, few even thought about going to college. Despite growing up during the Depression, Lloyd was all set to go to college when his father died, permanently ending that dream.

Although their passion to be students was halted, they had to be content with the role of teachers. In the evenings, Ellen taught their four children by her ironing board.

Lloyd was active in the local school board and was instrumental in consolidating three tiny school districts into a more effective organization with a modern high school.

Their dedication to education led to lives of achievement, in which they epitomized hard work, high standards and service to society. Their children went on to earn seven college degrees between them.

According to Lanty Smith, the new scholarship program was established to advance their belief in individual initiative, and in the responsibility of each person to develop their talents to contribute to a better society.

Smith said that is what he found during his years on campus, that and an awakened intellectual curiosity that still remains enriching. In high school, Smith focused mostly on athletics.

When he arrived at Wittenberg, he was interested only in math and science. “I remember thinking I wished I didn't have to take English and religion and could take more science courses,” Smith said.

“I also entered with very modest expectations. I thought I would study math and science, enter graduate school and probably go into coaching. But I came out on the other end with broader interests than I expected.”

Smith credits his Wittenberg professors with proving to him what many graduates of liberal arts programs find: that joy flows from a capability to grow through learning. “That has been extremely valuable in business,” he said.

“Everything you learn in life has many applications.” That attitude served him well while studying law at Duke University, which he approached not as a trade school, but as the “ultimate expression of liberal arts.”

“I knew nothing about law. I had never even been in a courtroom,” he said. “I had no more idea of big time law practice than the man in the moon. It just looked like fun.

It felt like a continuation of what I had done at Wittenberg, so I just went off and enjoyed it. “If I hadn't had the broadening experience at Wittenberg, I would not have been adventurous enough to try that.”

Since then Smith has changed careers several times, from corporate lawyer to CEO of a multi-national corporation to consultant and investment banker.

“I go into various industries, and it is the different financial analyses that make my days fun.” When Smith Scholars begin showing up on campus in 2000, Smith plans to play a more direct role in their “broadening experience.”

“I plan to meet with the students each year,” he said. “They will certainly have my telephone number and e-mail address, and I hope to hear from them. I hope they will become close in my family.”

Smith's own four years at Wittenberg were made possible by a General Motors scholarship. The corporation sent a representative to campus each year to meet with him.

“It was a window into a world that I didn't know, and I really looked forward to it. I can remember how meaningful it was to me to have contact with some people who have achieved a lot and have a depth of experience.

If I can help play that role with some other students, I'll feel good about it.” What kind of student should Smith Scholarships attract? “It doesn't have to be in the business world at all,” Smith said.

“I would be delighted with students interested in politics, journalism, diplomacy, research and development or other fields. But I hope they will be people who will be leaders when they are on campus.

For me this opportunity is for people who want to make a difference in the world and choose Wittenberg as a place to do that.”