Smith, Courtney C. (Courtney Craig), 1916-

Courtney Smith was born on December 20, 1916 in Winterset, Iowa. He was not born a Quaker, but joined the Society a number of years later. He attended Harvard University, graduated in 1938, and was named a Rhodes Scholar. Upon his return from England, he married Elizabeth Proctor and was named a Teaching fellow and English Tutor at Harvard University. He received his Ph. D. from Harvard in 1944. From 1946 to 1953 he was an Instructor, Assistant Professor, and Bicentennial Preceptor in English at Princeton University. In 1953 he was named the American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships and was also named ninth President of Swarthmore College. It was under the Presidency of Smith that Swarthmore gained its full reputation as one of the finest small liberal arts colleges in the country. Smith set in motion a thorough re-evaluation of the college. Smith did an outstanding job of increasing the financial stability of the school. He appealed to the Ford Foundation as well as alumni to raise faculty salaries. In 1955 he initiated a Faculty Research Fund which provided funding for professors to do independent research. Smith changed the physical campus as well. Under his presidency, McCabe Library, Sharples Dining Hall, the DuPont Science Building, and Worth Health Center were built, while the old library became Tarble Social Center. In June of 1968 Smith announced his resignation effective the fall of 1969 in order to head the Markle Foundation. On January 9, 1969, Smith died of a heart attack suffered while in his office. At the time, some blamed the stress of the negotiations with the Swarthmore African-American Student Society (SASS) to increase the presence of black students on campus, while others saw it merely as a sad coincidence.