Victor J. Smith:
Human Dynamo
by Melissa Crowfoot Keane
Photo courtesy Archives of the Big Bend, Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library,
Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas
Professor Victor J. Smith, circa 1951
M
any of those who established
Sul Ross State University are
remembered in the names of
campus buildings, such as presidents
H. W. Morelock and Bryan Wildenthal.
But the name of one of the most
dynamic forces on the campus has
slipped into obscurity. Known as “Mr.
Sul Ross” throughout the first half of
the 20th century, Victor J. Smith con-
tributed much to the landscape and spir-
it of Sul Ross. From his arrival in Alpine
in 1919 until his death in 1956, Professor
Smith guided students, designed build-
ings, explored the region’s archeology
and attracted national recognition with
the Big Bend Memorial Museum
(known today as the Museum of the Big
Bend).
Raised and educated in Austin,
Victor James Smith moved to San
Angelo in 1912 to teach industrial arts.
During his four years in San Angelo,
Smith met and married the domestic
science teacher and became the first
principal of the first junior high. In early
1920, as the first Sul Ross building took
shape east of the little town of Alpine,
the new college president hired Smith
away from his San Angelo position to
oversee construction of the new normal
school. Smith arrived in Alpine and took
over construction of the first two build-
8
ings on the Sul Ross campus, the Main
Building and the college president’s
house.
He would repeat the role of construc-
tion overseer many times before his retire-
ment. Between 1920 and 1951, most of
the buildings constructed on the Sul Ross
campus bore “the special marks of the
ever-active hand of Victor J. Smith (who)
drew the plans, called for bids, helped in
approving the contract and then super-
vised the construction,” according to Sul
Ross historian Clifford B. Casey.
Several of Smith’s buildings are famil-
iar to today’s students, including a gym-
nasium (1928), the library (1931), a
museum (1937) and Lawrence Hall
(1939). Others have been demolished,
included a bowling alley, band hall, cafe-
teria, student union and student cottages.
Equal in importance to the design of
the buildings, Smith sketched the future
layout of the campus along a central
mall. Off-campus, Smith applied his tal-
ents to the Lodge and the Outdoor
Theater in Kokernot Park, the wrought
iron gates at Kokernot Field and the
First Methodist Church. Smith became
a registered architect in Texas in 1938.
A story told about the construction of
the cafeteria reveals Smith’s energy and
skills. Modern college campuses of the
1930s were adding cafeterias to the list of
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2010
student amenities. Within two months
after college president Morelock sug-
gested to Smith that Sul Ross might ben-
efit from such a facility, Professor and
Mrs. Smith designed, built and began
operating a campus cafeteria. Smith
enlisted the help of his students in fabri-
cating the dining room furniture,
kitchen work tables and sinks.
Perhaps more significant than the
creation of the Sul Ross campus were
Professor Smith’s enthusiastic interac-
tions with the students and his contribu-
tions to the emerging culture of the new
normal college. As professor of industri-
al education, Smith first acquired war
surplus machinery and equipment for
the Sul Ross campus and then offered
classes in a wide variety of manual arts:
mechanical and architectural drawing,
carpentry, furniture design, cabinet
work, concrete construction, metal work
and gasoline engines. After class, he
helped the students build floats and
make posters.
In the first years of the new school,
Smith’s fertile brain suggested the Bar-
SR-Bar as the school emblem, and its
resemblance to a branding iron led to
the adoption of The Brand as the name of
the yearbook. In the spring of 1925,
Smith’s manual arts students prepared
an outline of the emblem, and in a stu-
dent assembly, he recruited another 50
students (20 percent of the student body)
to haul several tons of boulders up the
hillside behind the college to create the
50-foot-by-100-foot Bar-SR-Bar emblem.
In addition, Smith suggested the
name of the student paper, and the
description of that incident reveals
Smith’s unassuming personality. During
a 1923 meeting pondering a name for
the student newspaper, Victor Smith
gazed out the window. Quickly, he made
a pencil sketch of the ridge of moun-
tains. Below the sketch he wrote “The
Skyline.” Silently, he handed his drawing
to the committee chairman, who shared
it with the rest of the attendees. The
committee recommended Smith’s sug-
gestion to President Morelock who
selected The Skyline over the second place
choice, The Rossonian.
The affection that students felt for
Smith is evident in several yearbooks,
and the yearbook staff dedicated the
1923 volume to Smith with these words:
To the friend of the students, the faculty
humorist, the man indispensable about the col-
lege; to him who came as a pioneer to Sul Ross
and has been such a tremendous factor in its
making, we, the students of ’23, in token of our
unbounded and sincere appreciation of the man
and his work, dedicate this, the third number of
THE BRAND, to Mr. Victor James Smith.