Date of Birth
1981
Date of Death
August 3, 2021
Location
Elmira, New York
Who She Was
Her Story
Dr. Betsy Smith of Elmira, New York passed away unexpectedly on August 3rd as the result of complications during delivery of her first child. She was a tenured Associate Professor of Chemistry at Elmira College and would have started her 8th year with the College this fall.
Betsy was the oldest of three daughters and was born in 1981 in Miami, FL. Betsy saw being a big sister as her most important role in life, and she was always there for her little sisters. Her family moved to Gainesville, FL, when she was 9 where she ultimately graduated from Eastside High School’s International Baccalaureate program. As a teenager, she earned her Girl Scout Gold Award and pursued academic and athletic success. She received her A.B. in Chemistry from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University. She returned to Princeton for Post-doctoral studies, which led to her appointment at Elmira College.
Through her collegiate and post-doc years she excelled in taekwondo, achieving her 2nd degree Black Belt. She was heavily involved in the Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference as a judge and tournament coordinator and recently initiated a taekwondo program at Elmira College. Her first athletic love was swimming, which led her to success in sprint triathlons. Recently, she participated in the Gay Games in Paris, France and Aquathlon Worlds in Odense, Denmark.
Betsy’s passion was education – her own and that of others. She loved learning and began mentoring young women in Girl Scouts at an early age. She thrived at Elmira College both in the classroom and in college administration. She was a mentor to her two younger sisters who are also both science educators. Her students were her life, and she will be missed by everyone she touched.
If you want to honor Betsy, tell your family you love them, take time to learn something new, help a friend, stand up for what is right, accept people for exactly who they are, speak your mind with intellect and compassion, and it won’t hurt to find a cat who likes to snuggle.
She is survived by her daughter Charlotte, parents, Jacquelyn Smith (New Smyrna Beach, FL) and Dale Smith (Lady Lake, FL), sister Malinda Smith (Charlottesville, VA), sister Jean Smith Ashby (DeLand, FL), brother-in-law Corey Ashby, nephew Miles Ashby, and her three cats.