SALISBURY — A 1944 Catawba College alumna, Edith Smith Kenerly Holshouser, has created a new scholarship fund at her alma mater that will benefit students from her native Rowan County.
The Kenerly Smith Family Scholarship is a way for Holshouser to pay tribute to the fact that she, her late first husband, Harold Kenerly ’47, and four of her late siblings, William Lamont Smith ’33, Maxine Smith Carlton ’37, Quay Thurston Smith ’41 and Martha Viola Smith Adams ’41, all graduated from Catawba.
Edith grew up in Spencer, one of seven children. Her father worked as a conductor for the railroad. She followed her four siblings to Catawba and graduated with a degree in business administration and her teaching certification.
She recalled that during her senior year at Catawba there were no sports since most of the males were in military service during World War II. This included her first husband, Harold, who was attending Catawba when World War II interrupted his education. He came back to Catawba after serving several years in the Marine Corps and completed his education, graduating in 1947 with a degree in business.
Edith married her second husband, Dwight Willard Holshouser, in 1998, four years after the death of Harold. She had known him as a student from Salisbury when she was in high school in Spencer and later while both were students at Catawba. Dwight graduated in 1943 with a degree in social studies. He went immediately into service as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy serving until January 1946. Dwight, like Edith, was from a large Rowan County family. He was one of nine children and his brother, Ken, graduated from Catawba in 1949.
Today, Edith and Dwight Holshouser continue to come back to their alma mater. They joke that their first date as a couple was at a Catawba football game. They are supporters of the Chiefs Club and the Alumni Fund and have supported the Shuford Stadium Lights project. Dwight has also served on Catawba’s alumni association board.
The two also enjoy their families and make their homes in both Salisbury and Greensboro. Edith has two sons and a daughter, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, and Dwight has three daughters, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“The Kenerly Smith family is one with strong ties to Catawba and to the local community and we are appreciative that Edith has chosen to pay tribute to those ties by establishing this new scholarship,” explained Tom Childress, Catawba’s senior vice president of development.
For more information on establishing a scholarship at Catawba College, contact the Development Office at 704-637-4394.