‘Standing Strong’ tells story 150 years in the making

Dr. Gary Scott Smith ’72

Grove City College Professor Emeritus of History Dr. Gary Scott Smith ’72 has penned a new history of the College in conjunction with its 150^th anniversary.

“Standing Strong: Grove City College’s 150-Year Journey in Faith, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Excellence” offers a comprehensive overview of Grove City College’s story from its founding in 1876 to the selection last year of Bradley J. Lingo ’00 to serve as the College’s 10^th president.

In between Smith, an alumnus and author who taught history, humanities, and other courses at the College from 1978 to 2017, provides a detailed account of the people, events, and ideas that shaped Grove City College’s evolution from a small-town preparatory school to one of America’s premier Christian conservative colleges.

“Grove City College has a rich and inspiring history that deserves to be told,” Smith said. “For 150 years, the College has strongly promoted Christian truth and values while effectively educating thousands of students and preparing them to serve God and people through various vocations and capacities.”

“Standing Strong” places the College’s history in context of a century-and-a-half of consequential world events, including two world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and the Covid 19 pandemic, and challenges to Grove City College’s mission and vision from increasing secularization, changing regional demographics, trends in higher education, and political polarization.

“Grove City College has often cut against the grain,” Smith said, pointing to its Reformed theological foundation, focus on Western civilization and the humanities, the teaching of Austrian economics, low tuition and fiscal discipline, commitment to biblical orthodoxy and traditional moral values, and institution-defining legal battle against the U.S. government.

“Moreover, it is one of the few schools in history to start down the road toward secularization and reverse course and reclaim its historic Christian mission. This heritage makes Grove City College unique in the annals of American higher education,” he said.

The College has had its “flaws and failures,” Smith noted, but its record of educating students and “serving as light and salt … is very impressive.”

“Even a 450-page book barely begins to highlight the tremendous contributions that Grove City trustees, administrators, faculty, and graduates have made to the world and the kingdom of God. It is an inspiring story, which was delightful to research and tell,” Smith said.

The College commissioned Smith to write “Standing Strong” to commemorate this year’s sesquicentennial. He spent two years researching the book, which took him deep into the College’s archives for records, letters, board reports, old Collegian newspapers, alumni publications, oral histories, and other material. The work also included study of the history of higher education and cultural trends in various eras, social media content, legal documents, and interviews with administrators, faculty, and graduates.

“Standing Strong” is the third substantive history of the College, after 2001’s “Freedom’s College” by Lee Edwards and “’Mid the Pines” by Dave Dayton ’60, which was published in 1971.

Smith, who specializes in American religious history, is the author or editor of 20 books, including “Strength for the Fight: The Life and Faith of Jackie Robinson,” “Duty and Destiny: The Life and Faith of Winston Churchill,” “Religion in the Oval Office,” “Heaven in the American Imagination,” and “Faith and the Presidency.”

“Standing Strong: Grove City College’s 150-Year Journey in Faith, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Excellence” is available in the College bookstore, online outlets, and from the publisher, Post Hill Press.

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