Budd Elmon Smith

Posted on by Carol Ann McCormick

(9 February 1910 – 5 August 1976)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) curates about 850 vascular plant specimens, 10 fungal specimens, and 1 lichen specimen collected by Dr. Budd Elmon Smith.  As we continue to catalog our collections it is likely that more specimens collected by him will be found.  He collected throughout North Carolina and South Carolina, but by far the majority of his specimens were collected during his doctoral work on the flora of Darlington County, South Carolina.

Budd Elmon Smith, undated photograph, courtesy of Wingate University

Smith was a Tar Heel by birth, education and death.  He was born in Johnston County, North Carolina, and graduated with a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1931.

He went on to study under William Chambers Coker and earned both a Masters degree and a Ph.D. from the Botany Department of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1934 and 1942 respectively.  “A taxonomic and morphological study of the genus Cuscuta, dodders, in North Carolina,” was the title of his Masters thesis.  “A study of the dicotyledonous flora of Darlington County, South Carolina,” was the title of his doctoral thesis.

Budd Elmon Smith met Ethel Lilly Knott in German language class at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  She was a graduate of Meredith College in Wake County, North Carolina, and earned a B.A. in Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill as well as a M.A. in English and Counseling at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.   They were married in Granville County, North Carolina on 28 December, 1943.7   Budd Elmon Smith enlisted in the United States Navy on 12 November, 1942, and served until 24 December 1945.3

In 1953 Dr. Smith became president of Wingate College in Union County, North Carolina.  Ethel Smith became the Head Librarian of the college library, and it was named in her honor on 23 January 1959.5, 6

Ethel K. Smith, spouse of Budd Elmon Smith. Undated photograph courtesy of Wingate University.

Budd and Ethel Smith assumed leadership of the youthful college, immediately attacking its twin points of vulnerability: enrollment and financial support. New recruitment strategies were implemented that aimed to increase the student body from its tenuous level of about 400. In 1955, Dr. Smith interested Mr. Charles A. Cannon of Kannapolis in the school. Mr. Cannon saw Wingate as a place where the children of textile workers and others in the middle class might receive opportunities in higher education. He began to invest in the renewal of the physical plant and the expansion of the curriculum, providing first-class facilities for the growing student body which reached 1,500 in the late 1960s. Dr. Smith, a botanist by discipline, personally directed the planting of flowers and trees which complemented the stately oaks on the central campus. Through the labor of the Smiths and the generosity of Mr. Cannon and others, Wingate weathered the storms of its youth and turned to the future with new confidence. 4

The Budd E. Smith Science Building, constructed in 1962, is adjacent to the Ethel K. Smith Library.6

Budd Elmon Smith retired from Wingate College in 1974.  In 1995 Wingate became a university.  A bust of Dr. Smith was unveiled at a ceremony at Wingate University in October, 2011.  It was sculpted by Stephen Smith of Marshville, NC and is located in front of the Holbrook Building.

Sculptor Stephen Smith’s bust of Budd Elmon Smith at Wingate University

Smith died in Smithfield, Johnston County, North Carolina and is buried in the Smith Family Cemetery in Benson, Johnston County, North Carolina beside his wife, Ethel Lilly Knott Smith (1915-1988).1,2

Gravestone of Budd Elmon Smith in Smith Family Cemetery in Benson, Johnston County, North Carolina. Image courtesy of Find a Grave Memorial # 6963254.

 

PUBLICATIONS (likely an incomplete list):

Smith, Budd Elmon.  1970.  My Faith Experience in Christ.  Sermon given at Baptist State Convention of North Carolina Evangelism Conference.  Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Special Collections & Archives, Wake Forest University.  Audio file http://hdl.handle.net/10339/93164
Smith, Budd Elmon. 1946.  Additions to the flora of South Carolina.  Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 62 (1): 81-86.
Smith, Budd Elmon.  1942.  A study of the dicotyledonous flora of Darlington County, South Carolina.  Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Botany, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Smith, Budd Elmon.  1934.  A taxonomic and morphological study of the genus Cuscuta, dodders, in North Carolina.  M.A. Thesis, Department of Botany, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

SOURCES:

1.      North Carolina Department of Health.  North Carolina Deaths, 1976-1977.

2.      Find a Grave Memorial #69643254  accessed 8 June 2012.

3.      United States Dept. of Veteran Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010.

4.      http://www.wingate.edu/documents/wu-history.pdf  accessed on 8 June 2012.

5.      Hastings, Robert J.  (December 7, 1985)  An interview with Ethel K. Smith.  Biblical Recorder, December 7, 1985.  Volume 151, No. 44, pg. 6.  http://lgdata.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/docs/1244/312456/EKSarticle.pdf  accessed on 6 June 2012.

6.      Personal communication via email, Debra Hargett, MLIS, E-resources & Special Collections, Ethel K. Smith Library, Wingate University.  20 July 2012.  Special thanks to Debra Hargett, MLIS, E-Resources & Special Collections, Ethel K. Smith Library, Wingate University for photographs contained in this post.

7.    Marriage Register (1867-1990), Granville County, North Carolina.  Page 935.