Washington State University - Chinook Yearbook (Pullman, WA)

Page 25 text:

New President Selected Mr. Smith Comes To Washington State He came highly recruited after a na¬ tion-wide search that took many months. Not a football tackle, not a seven foot center, but a rather short man, with a salesman’s grin. He came to Pullman, liked what he saw, and agreed to become the next pres¬ ident of this university. He is only the eighth person to hold the title of president. He took over July 1, the quiet time of year in Pullman. Samuel H. Smith will earn $98,000 as the president of WSU. He replaced popular president Glenn Terrell who re¬ tired after many years here. Smith came from Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agriculture where he was the dean. Smith told faculty and community leaders at his first official meeting with them that WSU is a better school than even its faculty believes — “you have to look at it from the outside to have an impression of the quality of the institu¬ tion and the people who are here.” Outgoing president Terrell said Smith has the patience to be a good leader and the personal style that makes people want to follow him. “He has to be firm, but also to do a little tap dance and be flexible when he sees he’s butting his head against a wall,” Terrell said . The search for the new president had been hidden in secrecy and the final announcement was a major topic on campus. All the media in the area had been on the story and the choice of Smith as a new president was in the press before the fin¬ al hiring by the WSU Board of Regents in March. Smith, 45, was popular with the re¬ gents because of his ability to attract both private and state monies for his area in Penn State. It also appeared Smith was the favorite with students who had the chance to meet all the finalists when each visted campus. The finalists for the job were Smith, whose degrees are in plant pathology; Russel Jones, vice president for academics at Boston University; and James C. Williams, dean of the Carnegie Institute of Technology at Carnegie- ' Mellon University. Regent R.D. Leary said “we think he fits WSU’s mission at this time — he com¬ es with impecable credentials. He’s a good academician, a good researcher and a good administrator — plus he’s a nice guy”. Smith had been a Penn State faculty member since 1969 and became dean in 1981. A California native, he received both his undergraduate and doctoral de- New President Samuel Smith responds to questions at a press conference after being recently named to replace Glenn Terrell. (Color photo by Scott Obom and opposite page photo by Ernest N. Hoover) grees from the University of California at Berkeley. The first president of the university, which opened in 1892, as Washington State College, was George Lilley of the South Dakota Agriculture College. His salary was $4,000 per year. Lilley served just over a year, and then was fired on a split vote of the Board of Regents. His replacement was a Seattle principal named John W.Heston. Stu¬ dents protested in support of Lilley. The most responsible for the firing of Lilley was a regent named Smith. When he and Heston arrived on campus, a group of students pelted them with eggs and cab¬ bages which were not fresh. One tradi¬ tional story was that the new president of the college sought shelter in a corn stack. After the student protest, the regents met in Tacoma, and went on record against the students and asked for im¬ mediate steps to be taken to punish the guilty parties. The state’s new governor, John M. McGraw called for a new board of re¬ gents. The new board then fired some of the faculty members and Heston res¬ igned. On July 22, 1893, Enoch A. Bryan was elected president. He found himself the president of a college slightly over a year old which had fired one president and lost a second, suffered a scandal over finances and had a legislative investiga¬ tion. It had also had two boards of re¬ gents and three sets of faculty. Bryan served until 1915. On Jan. 1, 1916, E.O. Holland assumed the pres¬ idency. His successors, in order, were, Wilson M. Compton, C.Clement French, and the just retired Glenn Terrell. Expressions 21