Mignon Comer Smith, an Alabama philanthropist and heiress who established a scholarship foundation for Alabama high school students, died Friday at the age of 81.
Smith, born in Birmingham in 1931, was the daughter of J. Craig Smith, owner of Avondale Mills.
According to a biography posted on the foundation’s website, smithscholarships.com, Smith attended both Briarcliff College in New York and the University of Alabama, where she studied journalism and political science.
Smith utilized her UA education in Washington D.C., where she worked as a White House correspondent for Alabama radio news stations for 30 years.
Smith’s biggest impacts, though, are still found throughout Alabama public school systems and in colleges across the state.
Smith established the J. Craig Smith Chair for Integrity in Business at UA in response to what she believed to be a loss of integrity in the current generation of business. The chair was instrumental in beginning UA’s Center for Social Ethics and Responsibility.
“I think Ms. Smith’s legacy could be summed up in three words: integrity, generosity and responsibility,” said Patrick Smith, a graduate student assistant for the current Chair. “Programs developed by the Smith Chair will continue to support the study of ethics and promote ethical decision-making in business and in students’ personal lives.”
Stephen Black, director of the CESR, said the Center came out of Smith’s vision.
“Possessing a strong sense of ethics and community engagement, she sought to facilitate creation of a university-based program that would nurture social responsibility and reflective, thoughtful citizenship,” Black said.
In 2004, Smith gave Alabama’s public school system the largest endowment in the history of the state.
With a $10 million gift, she also founded the J. Craig and Paige T. Smith Scholarship Foundation, which provides 33 students with full tuition and expenses to the state school of their choice. Named for her parents, the foundation usually shows preference to students who are the first in their families to attend college.
“[The foundation] has made the dream of attending college a reality for numerous young people who otherwise would not have been able to attend,” Patrick Smith said. “The foundation rewards hardworking students who have personally contributed to their families and communities. Her generosity will live on through them.”
Freshman Angela Veloza, part of Smith’s most recent batch of scholars, said she was able to meet Smith in person and thank her for the scholarship.
“She had great words of wisdom and told us, the scholars, that we are the best investment because we are the future,” Veloza said. “She was a wonderful woman who needs to be honored and remembered, especially at UA.”
The foundation has supported more than 99 students since 2004 and is set to receive a $20 million bequest from Smith.  It is likely Smith’s legacy will continue to live on through the students in whom she has invested.
