The College of Arts & Sciences is pleased to recognize Mr. Cary K. Smith as our alumnus of the month for July.  A 1966 graduate of the University of South Carolina, Mr. Smith has given back generously both to the University and to the community for many years. 

After a 25-year career with IBM, Mr. Smith moved into the not-for-profit sector, where he has taken the skills and talents he honed as a business executive and applied them toward meeting the health and human services needs of the South Carolina Midlands, serving from 1997-2005 as President of United Way of the Midlands and from 2005 on as President of the Palmetto Health Foundation.  In honor of his son, Cary K. (Kin) Smith, Jr., a 1986 graduate of the University who was killed in an accident while training as a Marine fighter pilot, Mr. Smith and his wife Marilyn have also established the Cary K. Smith, Jr. Scholarship Fund, which recognizes students in the Marine ROTC program, the English department and the Math department.

“The scholarship is a way to keep the memory of a loved one alive and promote an institution that means a lot to us,” Mr. Smith says.  “Kin was the third generation of our family who graduated from South Carolina.  In his freshman year, he took my mother to her 50th class reunion and wrote a paper about the experience for one of his classes.  Having a scholarship in his name creates a sense of permanence around him and also gives us a great deal of satisfaction and comfort because it provides a continuing connection to young people who are endeavoring in higher education.”

Mr. Smith also gives back through extensive community service:  he has chaired the boards of Junior Achievement, the Columbia Museum of Art, Future Group, Habitat for Humanity, the Palmetto Project and the Education Resources Foundation; and he is an active member and ordained Elder at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church.  A math major at Carolina, he says his field of study has impacted his career and his volunteer experiences in significant ways.  “I can clearly see,” he notes, “that whether I’m volunteering at the museum or doing my current work for the Palmetto Health Foundation, my whole approach to thinking and organizing my work has been conditioned by my math training, by the mental discipline and abstract thinking that comes from studying math, and that ability to break things down and figure out where to go and build a path to get there.”

As a native of Columbia, Mr. Smith has had lifelong ties to the University, which he says, “has been very steadfast in its adherence to its mission of training leaders and improving the state.”  Much the same could be said of Mr. Smith himself—his tireless philanthropic spirit has had a tremendous impact on the Midlands community, and the College of Arts & Sciences is honored to be among the beneficiaries of his generosity.

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