Mary Levi Smith-Stowe B.A., ’57, Jackson State University M.A., ’64, University of Kentucky Ph.D., ’70, University of Kentucky
Her father, a pastor and enterprising businessman, set a good example for his seven children about the importance of persevering. Although he had not been able to finish high school in his small Mississippi hometown because he had to work as a teenager to help support his family, he later finished high school through a correspondence program.
Photo courtesy of Kentucky State University Special Collections and Archives
Those life lessons stayed with Mary Levi Smith-Stowe when she headed to college. She had chosen to become a teacher because she liked to work with people and wanted to help her students to learn. Her first student had been her grandmother. Growing up in the segregated South, according to Smith-Stowe, her grandmother “was too fair to attend the school for “colored” children and too dark to attend the school for white children. So she grew up illiterate, not even able to write her name.” SmithStowe made it her goal to teach her grandmother to write her own name. She succeeded. Later, she followed her husband from her hometown in Mississippi to his hometown in Lexington. While her husband worked to finish his degree at Kentucky State, she started her graduate work at UK. She had completed so many courses that a professor recommended that she continue on toward her Ph.D.
Mary Levi Smith-Stowe was the first female president in the 105-year history of Kentucky State University.
Her dedication paid off. In 1991, Kentucky State University chose her as its 11th president. SmithStowe became the first African-American female university president in Kentucky. In 1993, she was inducted into the UK College of Education Hall of Fame. Smith-Stowe was named to the UK Alumni Association Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 1995.
“I think that education is and should be a lifelong process. What we do at the university is to help prepare students for life, which means preparing them for learning throughout
Known to others in higher education as a thoughtful, thorough and well-organized educator/administrator, she is an outspoken advocate of the value of education.
their lifetimes.”
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