(1852-1934)
As a writer, George Franklin Smythe is remembered as the historian of the early years of Kenyon College. He was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1852, the son of Anson and Caroline Augusta (Fitch) Smythe. In 1874 Franklin received an A.B. degree and in 1877, an M.A., both from Western Reserve University. He was married to Anna C. Hall of Hudson, Ohio, in 1878.
Smythe taught high school for two years in Cleveland, Ohio, and for two more years at Greylock Institute in Massachusetts. In 1885 he was ordained a deacon and the next year, a priest, in the Protestant Episcopal Church.
For the next several years Rev. Smythe served churches in Ohio, including Mount Vernon, and also in Massachusetts. From 1902 until 1920 he was on the faculty at Kenyon College. George Franklin Smythe died in 1934.
His writings included much material in periodicals and he was the author of the Kenyon song, “Philander Chase.”
PUBLICATIONS
Centennial History of the Diocese of God (with C. C. Budd). 1923
Kenyon College, Its First Century. 1924 (republished 2001)
God of Israel
Reminiscences