By Steven Mauch · Contributing Writer
Professor Emeritus of History Gary Smith released a book on Grove City College’s history titled “Standing Strong: Grove City College’s 150-Year Journey in Faith, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Excellence” March 24.
According to Smith, a former history professor at the college, this will be the third substantial history of Grove City College, considering those published in 1971 and 2001.
Smith mentioned that Grove City is different from many other Christian universities in that it has such a long “rich and robust history,” as well as having other distinguishing features, such as being coed from its founding and the 1984 Supreme Court Case, Grove Smith noted that Grove City is one of the few schools that began to secularize but later returned to Christianity, another aspect of the college’s history that makes it unique.
Smith was part of the faculty for 39 years before retiring and working on the book, which he says was a two-year project.
“The fact that we have had a really fine historian teaching classes here for so many years really benefited students, and our history department is trying to carry on Dr. Smith and Dr. Harp’s fine legacy of being first-rate historians,” Dean of the Calderwood School of Arts and Letters Paul Kemeny said.
Smith said that during the research, he interviewed faculty, presidents and alumni and examined records such as trustee meeting minutes.
“I know he’s done a ton of research, and (consulted) primary sources, the archives, The Collegian and all kinds of sources that he could get his hands on,” Kemeny said. “It’s not going to be based upon scant evidence; it’s going to have lots of fat footnotes.”
Among the alumni, Smith interviewed was Bradley Scott ’69, one of the “Grover greats” featured in the book. Scott was the first Black president of the Student Government Association from 1968-1969, an ODK Man of the Year and an Alumni Achievement award winner. They met during Harker’s presidency while Scott was a senior and Smith was a freshman.
Scott discussed how Grove City adapted over the years with the issues of the time and how those issues manifested on campus. He stressed how the college was able to continue its mission to teach its students how to live a Christian life in the world outside Grove City College. A part of this development was from the culture of the 1960s and the drift toward secularism, and Scott emphasized the importance of the college knowing who it is.
Scott mentioned that the book is divided into periods that outline the president at the time and what happened during their tenure. He said it was an “easy and engaging read,” and it was “very approachable.”
“(Smith) recounts a lot of information about student life, all kinds of extracurricular activities, sports, theater, music, debate,” Kemeny said. “He goes into excessive detail about those aspects of life and some of the colorful personalities that have walked across the stage of the institution over time … as well as the curriculum.”
“Every Grover ought to read this book and share it with their family, because of the great story it tells and the clarity with which it tells that story,” Scott said. “It’s a great read.”
Smith said the college gave him freedom during the process so he could write an “honest appraisal of the college,” which was important for one of Smith’s goals: for those affiliated with the college to be able to look back at it to learn from its triumphs, struggles and flaws.
“Dr. Smith’s got a real knack for taking a ton of information, like a stack of information, and synthesizing it down to the big ‘So what?’” Kemeny said. “So, it should be pretty, pretty comprehensive.”
Kemeny said that the students have a large part in the book.
