BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Quintin Miller Smith Collection
The Albert Gore Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University is home to the Quintin Miller Smith collection. Quintin Miller Smith ("Q.M.") served as president of State Teachers College (now known as Middle Tennessee State University) from 1938 to 1958.
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Quintin Miller Smith was born in Buffalo, a small farming community in Humphreys County, Tennessee, on May 5, 1891, to Edward Jerome and Nancy Miller Smith. He had a long and distinguished career as an educator in Tennessee and was well known for both his dedication to education and for his demanding schedule. |
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Smith began his teaching career at the age of 16, while enrolled as a student at Ruskin College. He taught in five different elementary schools in Humphreys County from 1907 until 1912. Deciding to prepare further for a career in education, Smith enrolled at Middle Tennessee Normal School (now called Middle Tennessee State University) located in Murfreesboro, in the fall of 1911. He was a serious student who was also involved in many extracurricular activities. He was the first president of the senior class, the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper "The Signal," a member of the first debate team, and a member of the first football team. He graduated in 1913 with a two-year diploma in education. When an alumni association was established in 1914, Smith became its first president. |
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In 1914, while employed as a science teacher at White County High School in Sparta, Tennessee, Smith continued his education by taking summer classes at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and at George Peabody College for Teachers (now part of Vanderbilt University) in Nashville. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Peabody College in 1917. From 1916 to 1920, Smith served as the first principal of Bradley Central High School in Cleveland, Tennessee. In 1919-1920, Smith served the first of two 1-year terms as president of the Tennessee Education Association.
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Smith took a ten-month leave of absence to enlist in the United States Navy from April 1918 to February 1919. Relieved from active duty with the rank of Ensign, Smith joined the U.S. Naval Reserve Force. Later he served in the U.S. Army Reserves and reached the rank of Major when he resigned his commission in 1942. Smith also served as Coordinator of the Rutherford County, Tennessee Civil Defense Council from 1942-1944. |
Smith's career in higher education began in the summer of 1920 as a Psychology Instructor at Johnson City's East Tennessee Normal (now called East Tennessee State University). Later that year, Smith became the youngest college president in Tennessee when he was appointed as the President of Tennessee Polytechnic Institute (now called Tennessee Technological University) in Cookeville. He remained at TPI until 1938.
Smith was involved in a variety of activities during his eighteen years in Cookeville. He enrolled in night classes at the Chattanooga College of Law and received his license to practice law from the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1923. He was awarded a fellowship from the General Education Board to study at George Peabody College for Teachers during the 1926-1927 school term. Taking a leave of absence from TPI, Smith earned his Master of Arts degree in 1927. In 1935, as a representative of the State Teachers Training Institute, Smith lobbied for a sales tax to support education in Tennessee. That same year he was awarded the Harlan Taylor Cup as the outstanding citizen of Cookeville. In 1936, he was named chairman of the TEA Legislative Committee. The following year he served his second 1-year term as president of the TEA.
In 1938, Smith returned to Murfreesboro, having been named president of his alma mater, which was then called State Teachers College. His first two years were turbulent. In 1940, petitions with signatures of Rutherford County citizens and S.T.C. faculty members were presented to the State Board of Education in an effort to spark an investigation of Smith and his leadership at S.T.C. The apparent goal was to oust him as president. One of the petitions protested the dismissal of Philip Mankin, an English professor who had been at the school for fourteen years.
The State Board of Education formed a committee to investigate the Mankin dismissal, State Teachers College, and the Q.M. Smith presidency. The committee, consisting of Doak S. Campbell, C.Y. Clark, and Howard B. Shofner, traveled to Murfreesboro to conduct interviews with people from both sides of the issue. Although the committee recommended sanctions, the State Board of Education dismissed all charges against Smith.
Smith's efforts and vision brought great changes to the college. The school's name was changed from State Teachers College to Middle Tennessee State College to encourage students interested in other fields of study to enroll. The college, valued at one million dollars in 1938, had an estimated worth of ten million dollars when Smith retired in 1958. During the two decades of the Smith presidency, student enrollment increased from 550 to 2,250 and the faculty and staff from 48 persons to 106. Under Smith, the campus increased in size from 205 acres to 604 acres. He increased the number of major campus buildings by thirteen and completed seventy building projects. He added several new departments and devised long-range plans crucial to the school's development into a university.
Smith reached the age of mandatory retirement in 1958. He died in Murfreesboro on April 2, 1976, one month short of his 85th birthday. Much of what Middle Tennessee State University is today is directly attributable to the energy and vision of Q.M. Smith.
The QMS Collection is enhanced by both the Gore Center’s Q.M. Smith Oral History Collection and its photographic collections. For more information on the collection, please contact the Gore Research Center.
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