Helen Fairchild Smith

While Helen Fairchild Smith was the daughter of Augustus William Smith, a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Wesleyan University since its founding and also its fifth president, she is remembered for so much more. Although her father had passed away by the time of the Van Vleck Observatory’s construction, Smith visited several months after its dedication with a friend and colleague Katherine L. Hill. Smith became Lady Principal and Professor of English Literature at Wells College, then an all-female school, in 1876; from 1894 to 1905 she served as the Dean of the College. One of Wells College’s most famous alumna was Frances Folsom Cleveland, the youngest First Lady of the United States, at just 21 years of age. She became engaged to the President-Elect Grover Cleveland several months after she graduated from Wells and married him in the White House. Helen Fairchild Smith took at as her personal mission to prepare the incoming First Lady for the duties of her new home and position. Smith even visited the famed alumna at the White House! 

Back at her home institution, Smith dealt with other presidential matters: during a period of transitions between school presidents, Smith stepped in, signing her letters “H.F. Smith, Acting President” (a title she bestowed upon herself but no one dare challenge). Smith served Wells College for 29 years, serving as a member of the Board of Trustees after her Deanship, becoming one of the most beloved member of the institution. The class of 1901 dedicated their yearbook to her while alumnae made gifts to the college in her name, including naming a college building after her (Helen Fairchild Smith Hall) and even naming an alcove in the dining hall for her. Indeed, Edwin Morgan, the first president of the Wells-Fargo Company, and a charter trustee of Wells College from 1868 to 1881 among other things, said it best: “to know Miss Smith was a liberal education.”