Wendell Wayne Smiley was born on June 15, 1908 in Charlestown Township, North Carolina. He was the eldest son of Arthur Lee and Sarah “Sallie” Stevenson Smiley, who parented four boys and three girls. Smiley’s father was a principal in the Swain County school system. His high school years were split between schools; he attended Hazelwood for two years, Almond High School for a year, and finally graduated from Marshall High School. He completed two years at Mars Hill College before transferring to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in science and graduated with a B.S. degree. From 1928 to 1929, he taught mathematics and chemistry at Charles L. Coon High School in Wilson. From 1929 to 1934, he was a member of the library staff at UNC, and directed the establishment of the general undergraduate library. For five years he served as the director of the documents library and labored over the development of the microfilm laboratory.
From 1939 to 1942, Smiley was a librarian at the Georgia Teachers College. He spent the following year at Mercer University. East Carolina Teachers College sought out Smiley for his services as a librarian. He stayed at ECTC for thirty years. Mr. Smiley had a big vision for an expansion of library services; his greatest achievement was to realize the construction of a new building, the James Y. Joyner Library. At his retirement, the Microfilms Room was named after him for the duties he performed for the school.
Mr. Smiley was active during his young age, as a member of the North Carolina Library Association and the American Library Association. He was also the president of the Georgia Library Association from 1941 to 1942, and served as secretary / treasurer of the Greenville Rotary Club from 1956 to 1978. His biography is listed in Leaders in Education, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Library Science, and Who’s Who in the Southeast.
On November 23, 1932, he married Elva Ruth Parkinson, and they had five children together, Wayne, Ralph, Scott, Steve, and Sara.
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Citation Information
Title: Wendell W. Smiley
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 6/25/2019