Alumni’s estate benefits Southern
The Southern University System Foundation has received its largest bequest ever through a gift that totals roughly $1.3 million, according to the university.
The endowment comes from estate sales through the James and Ruth Smith Trust. The late James David Smith died in 2008 and his wife, Ruth Johnson Smith, died in 2006. They met at Southern and were married for 44 years.
Ernie Hughes, executive director for the Southern University System Foundation, said it has taken about three years to fully work out the bequest. The Smiths had no children and left 65 percent of their estate to the Southern foundation.
“The university is very grateful,” Hughes said. “We’re just encouraging more alumni to include us in their estate planning.”
Hughes said the gift is very timely because the university is struggling with a financial emergency, called exigency, on campus.
As an unrestricted gift, the funds will go toward the university, the Southern University Museum of Art, an endowed professorship and an endowed scholarship, according to the university.
James Smith, a native of Monroe, was a painter and art professor who taught early on at Southern before spending most of his career at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His artwork was exhibited from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to the Dallas Museum of Fine Art.
Ruth Smith, a native of Powhatan, received degrees from Southern and LSU and worked as a public school administrator in California for most of her career. She also ran the nonprofit Miss Smith’s Children Center.
Hughes said most of the value of the gift comes from the sales of the Smiths’ many property assets.
Cretta Johnson, a trustee of the Smiths’ estate, said in a prepared statement: “Southern University, the place where James David met his beloved Ruth, laid the foundation of what became a lifelong partnership of teaching, service and love for the arts. The gift ... is a reflection of their value of education and their devotion to their alma mater.”