Photo courtesy Archives of the Big Bend, Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library,
Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas
Sul Ross State University President H.W. Morelock and Victor J. Smith stand
inside the newly built Big Bend Memorial Museum in 1937. The two paint-
ings, Moonlight on the Chisos by Xavier Gonzalez (at the back of the room)
and Branding Scene at Cathedral Mountain by Julius Woeltz (at right) remain
in the Museum collection today.
Perhaps teaching manual
arts classes, overseeing campus
construction and interacting
with the students might be con-
sidered a full load for some, but
these represented only a por-
tion of Smith’s activities. One
can begin to understand why
President Morelock thought
Smith to be a “human dynamo
who possessed all the traits of a
genius.”
While Smith dedicated por-
tions of his summers to
advanced training in educa-
tion, he spent other summer
days and holidays exploring the
archeology of the Big Bend
region.
Immediately after classes
ended in early May 1921,
Smith fired up his Model T for
his first archeological field trip.
His notes for that day describe
a site near Terlingua with 16
“potholes” (bedrock mortars).
During 1921, Smith reconnoi-
tered 35 archeological sites
from Point of Rocks to Ranger
Canyon, from Marathon to
Shafter, traveling the dirt roads
of the Trans-Pecos in his
Model T. His investigations
continued throughout the next
dozen years; by the end of
1933, Smith had visited and
described 207 sites.
Professor Smith’s holiday
archeology spilled over into his
campus activities. In addition
to adding anthropology classes
to his teaching load, he also
penned three dozen articles for
scientific journals between
1923 and 1951. Smith housed
his growing collection of
Indian artifacts in the base-
ment of the Main Building,
and, with the vision of a larger
museum in mind, he worked to
create a new society to collect
and preserve “materials of
anthropological, biological,
geological, mineralogical and
historical value” in “fire and
vermin proof storage cabi-
nets.” The West Texas Historical
and Scientific Society met for
the first time in December 1925;
over the next 12 years, the soci-
ety, spearheaded by Victor
Smith, collected specimens,
raised funds, and built a new
museum building. Collections
grew from 600 items in 1926 to
more than 12,000 items at the
time of the dedication of Big
Bend Memorial Museum in
1937. The collection encom-
passed the full breadth of life in
the Big Bend from arrowheads
to a stuffed mule deer buck and
a black silk sunbonnet.
In May 1939, the American
Academy for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS) held their
annual meetings at the new
museum, master-minded by
Smith. Speakers included
archeological luminaries of the
day. One can imagine Smith’s
pride as he welcomed col-
leagues from across the
Southwest to the museum and
the campus, which he had
helped create on a hillside that
had been empty two decades
earlier.
Professor Smith continued
to teach and to serve Sul Ross
through the 1940s. During the
war years, he taught additional
classes in pilot training ground
school. As he approached
retirement in 1951, his profes-
sional accolades mounted up –
Smith was named a Fellow in
AAAS and an honorary life
member of the Texas
Academy of Science.
Victor Smith appears to have
always been thin and fit. In the
spring of 1956, he lost weight
rapidly and became concerned
about his health. On May 5,
Smith drove his automobile one
mile south of Alpine on Hwy.
118 and killed himself with a
rifle shot to the head. Curious, I,
too, drove south on Hwy. 118
expecting a panorama of the
city of Alpine, but that is not the
view from one mile south – the
view is that of the campus of
Sul Ross marching up the hill-
side under the Bar-SR-Bar
emblem. I wonder if “Mr. Sul
Ross” chose that particular spot
so that he could gaze on “his”
campus.
Dr. Bryan Wildenthal
memorialized Smith as “one of
the most excellent and devoted
teachers and one of the finest
gentlemen who has served Sul
Ross. (We) will forever be
indebted to Victor J. Smith for
what he did to make Sul Ross
State College one of the most
beautiful in Texas. As long as
the grass grows in West Texas
and the mesquite leaves shim-
mer in the dry winds, Victor J.
Smith’s influence will be felt.”
Postscript: In 1960, an inel-
egant concrete block men’s
dormitory was christened
“Victor J. Smith Hall” in his
honor; it has since been demol-
ished. Today, no campus build-
ing or structure carries the
name of the man who dedicat-
ed so much of his time and tal-
ent to Sul Ross.
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Second Quarter 2010
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