{"id":3748,"date":"2025-03-19T15:36:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T15:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3748"},"modified":"2025-03-21T18:18:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:18:01","slug":"smith-endows-chair-champions-support-for-the-university-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3748","title":{"rendered":"Smith donates $500K, funding textbook program for SIU students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ron
Ron Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jeff Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in the small Randolph County town of Walsh, SIU was the only reasonable college option for Ron Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was where you could get the most bang for your buck,\u201d he said. \u201cSIU was so good to me and changed my life and made it better than it would have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since graduating in 1964 with a degree in marketing and a master\u2019s in business administration in 1966, Smith has stayed engaged with his alma mater, including donating more than $250,000 over the last 20 years. Now, he\u2019s taken his support a step further, making a leadership gift of $500,000 to establish a fund that will help students cover the cost of textbooks.<\/p>\n

Endowed chairs help attract and retain high-level faculty members by making the position more attractive and keeping salaries competitive with other institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing this to help the students of SIU,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI want to make the university stronger and provide better opportunities and better training for the students.”<\/p>\n

Smith has long been a donor to Southern, especially the College of Business and Analytics and Saluki Athletics. Despite living in California, he has maintained season tickets to Saluki Football games and supported the Blackout Cancer fundraiser. He also recently made a $10,000 gift to Saluki Softball.<\/p>\n

Smith has fond memories of his time at SIU, noting that he attended the university during the Delyte Morris era and the time of College of Business Dean Henry J. Rhen, for which the COBA building is named. Smith was also classmates with another of SIU\u2019s most prolific benefactors, F. Lynn McPheeters.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Morris was wonderful to listen to, and I was lucky to be there during his era,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe university had lots of programs that were geared toward students with limited financial resources. I was fortunate enough to make good enough grades that my professors thought I was a good candidate for graduate school.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduation, he joined the Peace Corps and spent 30 months in Colombia. He worked with farmers and fishermen, teaching them how to make the most of their assets. He credits his education from SIU with giving him the expertise to share with those people and give them a vested interest in the business side of their industry.<\/p>\n

Smith, a first-generation student whose niece now attends SIU as a fourth-generation student, said his continued support of the university shows the impact alumni can have even when they\u2019re not able to get to campus as often as they may like.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a way you can help build up the university?\u201d Smith said. \u201cEven if you\u2019re in California, like me, you can help folks in Southern Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about supporting the university, visit siuf.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Wilson Growing up in the small Randolph County town of Walsh, SIU was the only reasonable college option for Ron Smith. \u201cIt was where you could get the most bang for your buck,\u201d he said. \u201cSIU was so good to me and changed my life and made it better than it would have … Continue reading Smith donates $500K, funding textbook program for SIU students<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-stories","category-higher-education","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3748"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4357,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748\/revisions\/4357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}