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NEWS
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News Release |
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Retired professor pledges $1 million to BGSU BOWLING GREEN, O.—A professor and researcher credited with developing the nationally known industrial/organizational psychology
program at Bowling Green State University announced plans Thursday (May 5) to make a $1 million gift to the institution.
Dr. Patricia Smith and her late husband, Dr. Olin Smith, joined the faculty in 1966 as psychology professors. Professor emeritus
Patricia Smith, now retired from teaching, is pledging a $1 million charitable trust gift that will support two programs.
The announcement was made at the annual spring tea for the University’s retired faculty and staff, which was held Thursday
afternoon at the Mileti Alumni Center.
A portion of the charitable trust will go to the Olin and Patricia Smith Piano Accompaniment Fund to support student accompanists
in the College of Musical Arts. The remainder of the gift is designated for the Patricia and Olin Smith Faculty Development
Fund to support faculty in the industrial/organizational psychology program.
Smith has an international reputation for work in industrial/organizational psychology and as the developer of the Job Descriptive
Index, a measure of job satisfaction. At the time of her appointment to the faculty, she explained that industrial psychology
is “the process of making work more satisfying to everybody from the top executives on down,” and that at the time, there
was an acute shortage of industrial psychologists.
She and her husband tackled the shortage by developing an industrial/organizational psychology program within the Department
of Psychology at BGSU. Their efforts and the high caliber of the program are recognized nationally. The industrial/organizational
program ranks third nationwide in the 2006 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” published by U.S. News & World Report.
In 1984, Patricia Smith received the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, a division of the American Psychological Association.
This gift will be counted as part of Building Dreams: The Centennial Campaign for Bowling Green State University. The focus
of the fund-raising campaign, which continues through December 2008, is to increase scholarships, enhance faculty and leadership
positions, strengthen programs, build for tomorrow and sustain the University.
(Posted May 05, 2005 )
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