Ties That Bind

Bettie Smolansky and Colette Bails '03, Oakland, N.J.

Bettie Smolansky returned in April to her alma mater, Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina, as Moravian’s representative to the inauguration of its 11th president, Wayne B. Powell. “As luck would have it, I was first in the procession of delegates,” Bettie said, “and an alumna of Salem College [the only other Moravian college in the United States] was next.”

Now normally that would be the end of the item. But Bettie is just one link in a long family connection to Lenoir-Rhyne College. “My father was class of ’24, one brother is class of ’55, the other is class of ’61 (he’s the one who has been on the faculty for more than 35 years), I was class of ’62, and Mama was class of ’65. She was the original non-traditional student, who returned to school after we had all graduated and my father had died [in 1963]. She actually lived in the dorm.”

Bettie’s mother worked for the college for more than 30 years, as director of its student union and then as dean of students. In 1996, the Alumni Association renamed the three prizes for service that it awards after her.

Bettie herself was given the college’s distinguished alumna award in 1995. And this is the second time she has represented Moravian at the inauguration of a president at Lenoir-Rhyne.

You may think this belongs in the Lenoir-Rhyne alumni magazine rather than the Moravian newsletter. We include it here to pay homage to a legacy tradition as rich as any at Moravian itself, which prides itself on links among families. It’s one of the charms of a small college.