Tower-Summer 2019

26 TOWER | SUMMER 2019 A sk retired physician Dr. Ronald Smoyer ’62 about his college experience, and he will tell you his life might be drastically different if he didn’t attend Kutztown. Smoyer enrolled at Kutztown State Teachers College in 1958 after scoring two scholarships to pay his $144 annual tuition, allowing him to commute to school (a 22-minute drive from his home in Emmaus that included one traffic light in Kutztown’s downtown). His first choice in careers would have been to enroll in pre-med somewhere and later go to medical school for a veterinary degree, but it wasn’t in the cards. Smoyer has no regrets. His biology degree from Kutztown helped him to land a teaching job at Salisbury-Elk Lick Junior/Senior High School, Salisbury, Pa. The first year Smoyer taught a combination of general education, health and physical education, before transitioning to biology. In 1970, he started his journey into the medical field, and was accepted at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He finished at the top of his class and later established a private solo family practice in his now home of Pawleys Island, S.C. He and his wife Charlotte still visit their family farm in Schwenksville, Pa., where they escape the humid July through September months of the south. To this day, his time at Kutztown and the ability to attend college at all, is something for which Smoyer is grateful. He shows that gratitude by giving generously to other young men in similar situations as commuters looking to attend the university, but who are unable to do so without financial assistance. “Kind of like the person the scholarship is named for,” he asserts. Not long ago, Smoyer received a few letters from recipients of the scholarship he has established. Reading them, he says, “brought me close to tears. We’re led to do things for a reason. One of the greatest days of my life was when the scholarship was established.” BY NIKKI MURRAY ’98 GRATITUDE AND GIVING An Unconventional Journey Leads to Generous Scholarships “I intend to continue to give to KU and help others, and the university is in my estate plan,” Smoyer says. “Life is a two-way street. I hope to bless KU the way it has blessed me.”