Edith Renfrow Smith, the first Black woman graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa, passed away on January 2. She was 111 years old.
The granddaughter of African Americans born into slavery, Smith was born in Grinnell, Iowa, in 1914, just weeks before the start of World War I. Growing up in Grinnell, Smith attended local public schools, where she participated in a wide range of intramural sports and played on both the basketball and volleyball teams of Grinnell High School.
Smith’s interest in attending Grinnell College was sparked by the Rosenwald Fellows, a group of African American men who attended Grinnell from 1918-1925, with half-tuition scholarships funded by the Rosenwald Foundation and matched by the college. These fellows inspired Smith to enroll in Grinnell herself, where she ultimately graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1937.
After completing her education, Smith moved to Chicago, where she met her husband, Henry T. Smith, and raised two daughters. In 1954, Smith began a two-decade-long career as a public-school elementary teacher. Upon retiring in 1976, she spent the next four decades as a community volunteer and leader with the YMCA, Goodwill, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Later in life, she participated in studies with both the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, where scholars studied her and other centenarians’ exceptional memory skills.
Grinnell College has commemorated Smith’s legacy on numerous occasions. In her honor, the college dedicated the Smith Gallery exhibition space in the Joseph Rosenfield ’25 Center and established Renfrow Hall, a mixed-use facility at the nexus between the college and the town of Grinnell. During the 2019 commencement ceremony, Grinnell presented Smith with an honorary doctorate.
Led by Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, the Louise R. Noun ’29 Chair in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies at Grinnell College, a team of students and alumni created the Edith Renfrow Smith website, documenting Smith’s life before, during, and after her time at Grinnell.
