Former Arkansas State University President Eugene Wilson Smith, who was instrumental in helping the Jonesboro-based college gain university status, has died. He was 88.
Smith, who had Alzheimer's, died after suffering a urinary tract infection, his daughter, Lucinda McDaniel, said Monday.
Smith became president when former Gov. Mike Beebe, an ASU alumnus and past member of the ASU board of trustees, was a state senator.
"The best word to describe Gene Smith, in my opinion, is class," Beebe said. "He had patience and manners and wisdom and a calm and cool demeanor. He never appeared ruffled. He never appeared emotional or upset when I was around him. ... [He] was just a really good leader, a classy guy."
Smith served as ASU's eighth president from Feb. 15, 1984, to June 1992 and twice was interim president. During his tenure, he oversaw double-digit growth in enrollment and the establishment of ASU's first doctoral program, in educational leadership, according to The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture and the source of biographical information in this article.
"He really elevated this university to a new level," said Ruth Hawkins, a longtime colleague and vice president under Smith and now director of ASU's Heritage Sites program.
"On a personal level, I considered him my mentor and my friend. Everything that I am today professionally is because of him. He's the one who encouraged me to get my doctorate. ... He's the one who instilled in me the love of the Delta."
McDaniel called her father a man of integrity.
"My father was absolutely honest," she said. "He was very strong on right and wrong. To him, there wasn't much gray area. He believed in absolute integrity. Your word was your bond. If you made a promise, you would keep your promise. ... I saw that through his personal life and ... his professional career ... especially when he was serving as president of the ASU System."
A Forrest City native, Smith was born June 10, 1930, to educators Milton Samuel Smith II and Frank Leslie Wilson Smith. His father was a superintendent in the Forrest City school district; his mother, a teacher there, according to the Arkansas Encyclopedia article written by Tom Moore, ASU's communications director.
Eugene Smith graduated from the school, then known as Arkansas State College, with a bachelor's degree in English in 1952. He went on to serve as an artillery officer and a first lieutenant in the Army during the Korean War. He resumed his education after being honorably discharged in 1954 and obtained a doctoral degree in education in 1958 from the University of Mississippi.
That same year, Smith became an instructor at the Jonesboro college and later an associate professor and a professor of education before being named executive assistant to a longtime ASU president, Carl Reng.
While assisting Reng, Smith "was instrumental in the institution's successful quest for university status" in 1967, the encyclopedia says. Smith's contributions included helping compile institutional data and garnering "support through networks of alumni and institutional boosters."
During Smith's presidency, he "led the school through one of its greatest eras of growth and development," the encyclopedia says.
Enrollment grew from 8,319 in the fall semester of 1984 to 10,416 in the fall of 1991. Among other major accomplishments cited were construction of a convocation center, now known as First National Bank Arena; expansion of the Dean B. Ellis Library; an NCAA status change to Division I, now the Football Bowl Subdivision; and early steps toward formation of the ASU System.
Once Smith believed he had accomplished his goals or set them in motion, he announced his retirement plans. On June 30, 1992, the trustees named Smith president emeritus.
Smith soon returned, serving as interim president from 1994 to 1995. At Smith's invitation, then-President Bill Clinton spoke at the dedication of the university's library expansion in 1995 and became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the campus.
"Gene Smith loved Arkansas State University immensely and put his heart, soul and talents into its growth and success through the years," ASU System President Chuck Welch said Monday.
Don Tilton, who oversaw governmental and university relations at ASU for 11 years, called Smith "a man of integrity."
"He knew what was right, and he knew what was wrong, and if there was ever any gray, he wanted further discussion of it.," Tilton said.
Shane Broadway, ASU's vice president for university relations and a former director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, recalled getting to know Smith when Broadway was still a student and Smith was president.
"He and I both got very nervous at football games," Broadway said. When games were close, "there would be times I'd find myself walking out of the stadium" and would run into Smith. The two then would walk around the parking lot together until they "felt more comfortable about going back in," Broadway said.
"I learned a lot from him," Broadway said. "He had a grand vision for Arkansas State University. ... A lot of [what's] been accomplished happened under his watch."
State Desk on 09/25/2018