Gerald W. Smith Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Gerald W. Smith 53
Q. Did you not also mention earlier, I seem to recall this, that s
or other the culture of the first group that settled fn Bureau Count in-
cluded peat respect for education?
ThOW
A. For education, that ' s ri&t. But at any rate, during my hi@ s
teachers were very supportive of nly going to college and so--by
Now the reason for going to Knox is very simple, it was the influence of my
teachers. Three of the teachers that I had in hi@ school were Knox paduates.
The principal of the high school who was quite influential was a graduate of
Knox, Miss Lock was a graduate of Knox and Esther Shaw one of the math
teachers was a graduate of Knox. So I had three Knox teachers and they sort
of pointed me toward Knox. (tape turned off and on) These people interested
me in it.
In the fall of nly junior year--I'm somy--the fall of rp~ senior year Miss
Bradley, the principal began to counsel me with regard to college and ICnox
and took me to the Knox college campus in the fall. That was the first
college carrrpus I had ever seen. On the basis of that visit I made an application
for amssion to Knox, made an application for a scholamhip and
an application for work. In the course of the fall, by Christmastimte, T had
been notifled that I had been accepted for amssion, and in due time I was
notified that I would get a half scholarship. In those days, in the fall
of 1924 when I entered Knox, the tuition was two hundred dollars, so I got
a hundred dollars tuition and I was advised that I would have to walt until
the next smr, of course, about employment. So, by Christmas of qy senior
year in hi$ school the fact that I was going to Knox was already es
What I did not @t understood thorou@ly was exactly how I was
finance it because it was my intention to finance myself through college so
far as tuition and the cost of living were concerned. My pwents would buy
m SOE clothes and I'd send nly laundry horn and a few things like that.
(laughs) But the basic effort would be IQY own, so that was how I happened
to go . . .
Q. You must have had a fair amount of money saved up, I would ass-,
after your working surmrs and so on.
A. No, I did not have. I had no nest egg with which to go, I was dependent
at the tim I started and all through college upon current earnings. I never
had nare than I needed for the upcoming year. But we will see as I along,
everything worked out very nicely.
Q. I was completely broke, too, when I went to Stanford. (lauds ) What
- .
were som of the goals that you had in mind?
A. By the time I entered Knox goal was specific, maybe not very r 2aListic,
but specific, and it happened to work out. By the time I padm ;ed
from high school I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and I hew I wanted to be
a hi@ school teacher, and I knew I wanted to be a principal. And wl ;bout
any realistic howledge of what it meant to be a principal I started ;o
college with the idea when I graduated I'd try and get a principalshi 1 with