Bea Smith named Outstanding Alumna

Rozanne King, House Corporation Board President, and Beatrice Smith at the 60th Anniversary Celebration

The highlight of the reunion dinner and program was awarding the Outstanding Delta Nu Alumna Award to Delta Nu’s first president, Beatrice “Babs” Burns Smith. Her generous gifts to Delta Nu made the current remodeling of the upper floors possible.

Bea was Delta Nu’s first president when the chapter colonized in 1961. After graduation from ISU, she taught high school English and then moved into academic administration at North Dakota State University. At age 36, she became the youngest dean at the University of Missouri in Columbia. During the 25 years she served as dean of the College of Human Environmental Sciences, Smith was recognized as a transformational land grant administrator.

She has received a Faculty-Alumni Award, as well as leadership awards at the national level. She recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Board of Human Sciences of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. She received the 2018 Athena Leadership Award conferred by the Women’s Network of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. She then received the International Athena Award. She was one of fewer than a thousand women in the nation to serve as a director of a publicly traded company.

Bea is a trustee of the State Historical Society of Missouri and a member of MU’s Jefferson Club, the Chancellor’s Fund for Excellence committee, and the Mizzou Botanic Garden Friends. She serves as an officer of the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre board. She has a son and three grandsons.