Where Are They Now: Catching up with 1989 Two Ten Scholar Tim Smith

Timothy is the son of LOREN SMITH, a District Manager for the Endicott Johnson Instock Sales Division. He graduated with top honors from Rugby High School in Rugby, North Dakota. An accomplished pianist, Tim will major in music upon his entry into St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. - A newspaper blurb from 1985. 

More than 40 years after receiving a Two Ten scholarship, Tim Smith still remembers the opportunity that helped make his dream school possible. He graduated in 1989 from St. Olaf College summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree and went on to receive his master’s and doctorate degrees in music from Indiana University. Today, Tim has spent nearly three decades as a professor of music at Arkansas Tech University, where he now inspires the next generation of musicians.

Looking back on his childhood in the small, rural town of Rugby, North Dakota, Tim remembers growing up in a community that encouraged people to pursue all of their interests.

"It was the type of community where somebody might do sports, but they also worked on the farm, and they also played in the band, or sang in the school choir or church choir," Tim said. "They did everything. You weren't pigeonholed into doing one thing."

Tim's father, Loren Smith, worked as a traveling shoe salesman for Endicott Johnson throughout much of Tim's childhood and young adult life and was also deeply involved in the community. He founded Rugby's community concert series, which brought four professional performances to town each year. Those concerts would ultimately influence Tim's college choice.

“One year, they brought in the St. Olaf College Orchestra and the St. Olaf Choir,” Tim said. "I really remembered that.”

Music was also a big part of life at home. Tim's five older sisters all participated in band and choir, and Tim discovered an early talent for playing piano by ear. That combination of musical exposure and natural ability became the foundation for what would become his lifelong career.

“I took a different path [than my father],” Tim said. “I started studying music at a very young age, and I soon figured out that that's what I wanted to do.”

When it came time to choose a college, the memories of the concert series in Rugby, along with encouragement from his music teachers, solidified his decision to attend St. Olaf College. But as one of six children, tuition was an important factor.

“It was a private school, and it was expensive,” Tim remembered. “Private schools often give good financial aid packages, but you still have to take out loans.”

For Tim, that financial hurdle could have changed the course of his future. Instead, a Two Ten scholarship helped make attending his dream school possible.

"That scholarship from Two Ten was a really big help for my parents to be able to send me there," he said.

With the support of that scholarship, Smith went on to graduate from St. Olaf in 1989 before earning both his master's and doctorate degrees in music from Indiana University. “I think you just find your niche, and you find your people,” Tim said. “Music was definitely my niche.”

And while he didn't inherit his father's career in footwear, his wife, Kristen, believes he may have inherited some of his sales instincts.

"When we have yard sales or garage sales, my wife always says, ‘Well, you've got some of your dad's sales gene in you, because I watched you work thousands of people. You've got something from your dad there.”