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The Elsie Burke Service Award, established in 1983, recognizes outstanding leadership, loyalty and service to Mansfield University. Hyde-Smith’s professional career and personal life have always had education as a focal point. In 1956 she earned her BS in Elementary Education from Mansfield and went on to earn a Master’s of Education and a Doctorate of Education from Penn State University.
In addition to her work in the Pennsylvania public schools as a teacher, a reading consultant and coordinator, and a Director of Curriculum and Federal Programs, she was also an adjunct faculty member at both Mansfield and Penn State. Hyde-Smith was the recipient of the MU 1988 Distinguished Educator Award.
Her volunteer service to Mansfield spans more than 35 years and includes serving on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and as a member of the Council of Trustees. She was a member of the steering committees for saving North Hall and for the first-ever comprehensive campaign at Mansfield.
Hyde-Smith also served in a leadership capacity for the Mansfield chapters of Phi Delta Kappa and Delta Kappa Gamma. A charter member of the Mansfield University Foundation, she served from 1974 until 2006, and was recently made an honorary member.
Her vision and leadership were instrumental in growing the foundation funds, which has allowed the foundation to provide increased financial support to the university. She has personally established and is funding two scholarships and is firm in her conviction that the welfare of the students be foremost in the decision-making process of the board. As a tribute to her service to Mansfield, in 2002 she was the recipient of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Eberly Award for volunteerism.
Hyde-Smith and her husband Al Smith ’49, maintain residences in Canton and Exton, PA, and in West Palm Beach, FL, and are frequent visitors to Mansfield University events, both on campus and regionally.