Paul and Florence Smucker Scholarship

Paul Smucker has fond memories of his first year as a student at the GC Academy. He drove a horse and buggy to school, stopping on the way to pick up two friends who also attended the academy. He “graduated” the next year to riding a bicycle and after that he drove the family’s Model “T” Ford. Paul’s father had sent him to the academy at CC as he felt it would benefit him more than the local public high school.

On his graduation from the academy in 1922, Paul chose to attend Bluff ton College where he studied accounting, graduating in 1929.

Paul met Florence Elliott at a YM/YW gathering in Detroit, where Paul had moved after graduation. Florence was the evening’s hostess. These were the days of the depression, and the bad economic situation was enough to discourage many young couples that thought of marriage. Paul and Florence decided, however, that they could make it and were married on Thanksgiving day in 1932. It was a sign of the times that they planned the wedding to coincide with a national holiday so that they would not have to miss any days at work. While living in Detroit they were blessed with two children, a boy and a girl.

Prom 1942 the Smuckers lived and worked in Philadelphia. They moved to Palm Harbor, Florida upon their retirement in 1973.

Although she had never been a student at the college herself, it was Florence who first suggested making a gift to the school. A former employer had offered to match employees gifts to deserving colleges and this encouraged the Smuckers. They decided to take advantage of the offer.

Paul and Florence Smucker regard their gift to GC as an expression of their support of the Mennonite Church and its institutions. Although Paul joined the Methodist Church when he married Florence, he describes himself as having a “leaning” for CC. He especially remembers people like Harold and Wilma Good and others who had high standards of Christian living.

It is the memory of the people he met at CC and his belief in the ideal of the Mennonite Church that have formed the basis for the Paul and Florence Smucker endowed scholarship fund.