George Herbert Smith was an American educator. He was the 16th and longest serving president of Willamette University in

Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river ...

, from 1942 to 1969. Smith graduated from DePauw University in 1927 where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. Smith served as General Secretary of Beta Theta Pi from 1935 to 1946 and President of that organization from 1946 to 1951. Smith is also the original author of The Son of the Stars, the Beta Theta Pi pledge manual. During Smith's tenure as president of Willamette University, he was instrumental in bringing international fraternities and sororities to that campus where only local organizations had previously existed. In 1947, he assisted in the installation of

Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of 2022 it consists of 144 active chapters in the Unite ...

Phi Delta Theta Phi Delta Theta (), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad ...

, and Sigma Chi at Willamette University, the first time the

Miami Triad The term Triad is used to designate certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North America. Union Triad The Union Triad is a group of the three oldest existing Greek-letter social fraternities in North America that were founded ...

had ever been installed on the same campus at the same time. This was also during Smith's second year as president of the General Fraternity of Beta Theta Pi. Smith served as National President of

Omicron Delta Kappa Omicron Delta Kappa (), also known as The Circle and ODK, is one of the most prestigious honor societies in the United States with chapters at more than 300 college campuses. It was founded December 3, 1914, at Washington and Lee University in ...

from 1961 to 1964. He received ODK'
Meritorious Service Award
in 1964 and it
Distinguished Service Key
in 1966. The G. Herbert Smith Auditorium and Fine Arts Center on Willamette's campus is named after Smith.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, G. Herbert Year of birth missing Year of death missing Presidents of Willamette University DePauw University alumni