Employee profile: Jean Smith

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InsideFurman is published monthly during the school year by the Furman University Department of Marketing and Public Relations. For story ideas, e-mail John Roberts, editor.

Smith has "watched
the campus grow up"

Librarian celebrates 40th anniversary at Furman, still going strong

When Jean Smith walked on the Furman campus 40 years ago for her first day at work, the now mighty oaks were just saplings, red dirt covered most of the ground and the fountains had just been installed.

But Smith’s first impression of Furman wasn’t about the oaks, fountains or rough landscape. It was the boys.

"I had just graduated from (Berea) high school and at the time there were no women out here, and they were bussing in the boys," she says. "I thought, ‘Hey, there are a lot of guys out here.’ I never dated any of the students but I did have some crushes."

Smith, who set a record in June as the longest-serving Furman employee, has grown in her appreciation of the campus that she "watched grow up." From her desk on the ground floor of the James Buchanan Duke Library, she has spent the last 40 years watching the development of one of the most scenic college settings in the nation.

"It has been almost unreal watching this campus come together," she says. "This is such a special place with a lot of special people."

Smith, who grew up off White Horse Road and enjoys gardening in her spare time, took her first typing test at Furman on an old manual typewriter. Most of her Furman career has been in cataloguing and typing, although she transferred to the library’s acquisitions department a few years ago.

A quiet person, Smith says she has been a bit uncomfortable with all the attention that her status as longest-serving employee has attracted.

"I have learned so much from working here," she says. "And I really enjoy it. I figure I’ll just work until I’m not able to."

Jean Smith chats with modern languages and literature professor Maurice Cherry (right) during a reception celebrating her 40^th anniversary at Furman.