Extracted from The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, NC)
Friday, August 6, 1976
Dr. Budd Smith, Retired College President, Dies
Dr. Budd Elmon Smith of Meadow Township, retired president of Wingate College, died unexpectedly Thursday night. He was 66 years of age.
A Johnston County native, Dr. Smith was a son of the late James Alonzo and Hettie Vira Lee Smith.
The funeral will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at Trinity Baptist Church. Dr. Ben C. Fisher of Nashville, Tenn. and the Rev. John Grant of Trinity Church will officiate. Burial will follow in the Smith Family Cemetery.
Dr. Smith assumed the presidency of Wingate College--a 33-acre college with 180 students--in 1953. When he retired to return to Johnston County after 21 years as president of the college, Wingate had expanded into a 300-acre campus with 1,300 students. The college, which had been heavily in debt in 1953, had 40 permanent buildings at his retirement, valued at $17 million.
He was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an A.B. degree in 1934, and he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1942. Dr. Smith had studied at Duke University, East Carolina, and the University of Hawaii.
He was a professor of biology at Coker College in Hartsville, S.C. and at Wake Forest College. Dr. Smith was assistant director of plant breeding fro Coker's Seed Farms in South Carolina. He had been a visiting lecturer in botany at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
While president of Wingate, he was a member of the Union County Hospital Board and the Union County Industrial Board.
A member of numerous collegiate fraternities, Dr. Smith had been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, a national scholastic honor society.
In 1962 Dr. Smith was named ``Outstanding Man of the Year'' by the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce.
During World War II, Dr. Smith served in the United States Navy from 1942-45 with the rank of Lieutenant, in administration of the V-12 Educational Program.
Dr. Smith was a member of the Trinity Baptist Church in Meadow Township. He had served as a member of the board of deacons as well as a Sunday School teacher.
A former Rotarian, Dr. Smith was a member of the Benson Lions Club.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Ethel Knott Smith; two sons, James Fielding Smith of San Luis Obispo, Calif.; two sisters, Mrs. Ellameta Johnson of Route 2, Dunn, and Mrs. Lucille Peacock of Route 2, Benson; and three brothers, Dr. John T. Smith of Wallace, and Garland Smith and Tom Smith of Route 2, Benson.