Shirley I. Smith

The late Shirley I. Smith endowed the Jonathan Hayden Smith Memorial Scholarship in 2004 to assist financially needy students at Jefferson Community College. Mrs. Smith created the scholarship as a lasting memorial to her son, Jonathan.

Jonathan was born November 3, 1946 in Memphis, Tennessee, son of Joseph S. and Shirley I. Hayden Smith. He graduated as an honor student from Watertown High School in 1964 and received a degree in entomology in 1969 from Cornell University. While taking a one-year leave from Cornell, Jonathon attended Jefferson Community College at the Lansing Street location and developed a special fondness for the college, its faculty and students.

Jonathan loved nature and enjoyed its many blessings. He and his dog would go for long walks daily in Thompson Park, through the winter chill and summer heat. Flower and vegetable gardening were favorite pastimes, and he studied Conservation Education as a graduate student at Cornell University. An avid musician, he played the clarinet, saxophone and organ.

“Jefferson Community College is a wonderful community resource, a cultural hub, for this region,” Captain Daniel J. Smith, Jonathan’s brother, explained, “we would like to honor my brother’s memory with a scholarship to a deserving student at this college. It will be a living legacy to him.”

The Jefferson Community College Foundation is grateful to the late Shirley I. Smith for her thought and generosity in endowing this scholarship.