Jonathan Smaby, a 1985 political science graduate, wrote many papers while at the University, but perhaps none as unique and compelling as the two letters he wrote after graduation.

When Smaby graduated, he didn’t feel it was sufficient just to tell people how much he’d gotten out of his four years at the University. Instead, he wrote a three-page, single-spaced thank-you letter to then-political science chair Virginia Gray.

An Austin, Minnesota, native whose father taught biology and anatomy at a local community college, Smaby wanted to make sure his teachers were aware of his gratitude. “My professors were really committed to their students,” says Smaby, now a lawyer in Dallas. “But faculty don’t always know whether they’re having an impact except through what they see in course-end surveys.”

“I grew up in a relatively small town,” he says, “and it’s a wonderful thing for somebody like me to attend an institution like the U with such a diversity of people and educational opportunities.” As a student, Smaby interned in the offices of a state legislator and the lieutenant governor.

In his senior year, Smaby received a Selmer Birkelo Scholarship. This scholarship for outstanding College of Liberal Arts students was established in 1972 by U of M alumnus Selmer Birkelo, who was a translator and interpreter with the U.S. State Department. The scholarship paid for Smaby’s final year at the U.

“That was very meaningful to me, not only because it reflected the work I had done, but because I was a financially strapped student going off to law school the next year,” he says.

After completing law school, Smaby and his wife, Michelle Roberts, also an attorney, formed their own firm in Dallas, Roberts & Smaby P.C., specializing in commercial litigation. Then, two years ago, he sat down and, along with his wife, signed the second letter to the U, establishing a scholarship not unlike the one he had received. The Jonathan E. Smaby and Michelle E. Roberts Scholarship (“Michelle gets top billing at our law firm,” Smaby jokes), will be awarded by the political science faculty to a student in their department.

“My goal was to make sure that any gift I gave should go to the political science department,” he says. “What we’re doing just seems like a fitting way to express my gratitude to the U.”

by Richard Broderick