Veteran TV journalist Harry Smith has returned to Central College to teach a seminar to juniors and seniors. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
PELLA — Things Harry Smith has found in Pella in his first month teaching at Central College: a lovely room above a garage to stay in, an invitation to a home brewing club, and delicious apples from a man with his own stories to tell. What he has yet to find, however, is a place to buy legal pads.
“I mean, I lived on legal pads when I was in college,” Smith said.
Luckily, he found some in his alma mater’s supplies closet, along with a big tub of bubblegum from which he bagged his own stash. Smith doesn’t allow laptops, phones or other technology in his course, but he said his 25 students are taking to using only pen and paper like “ducks to water.”
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When the TV journalist announced his departure from NBC News in late March, he said on “Today” that he was coming back to Central to teach a class on curiosity. Now that he’s settled on campus as an executive-in-residence for his seminar, Smith said he’s already been blown away several times by how they take the lessons and assignments he provides and thoroughly exceed his expectations.
As a Central College board member, Smith said he’s seen students coming to college over the years with more and more of a narrow focus. They take the classes they need in order to get the job they want after graduation. One of the goals behind his course is to broaden those horizons and teach students how to make their mindset adaptable, find connections out in the world and, in the words of Will Ferrell’s character in “Anchorman,” keep their heads on the swivel.
“One of the things I talk about in the class — somebody’s going to steal this — is, if you’re interested, you become interesting,” Smith said.
Smith was interested in all areas of campus when he came to college, though at first he thought he’d become a teacher and football coach after graduation, 51 years ago. Like a Roman candle just waiting for someone to light its fuse, Smith said once he got to Central he started taking classes on everything, from theology to philosophy to acting to feminist authors, as well as some education courses.
While he graduated from Central with a bachelor’s degree in communications and theater, Smith said his liberal arts education there was fundamental in bringing about the successes in his career. He went from working in radio in Denver to reporting and anchoring for CBS News, A&E, the History Channel and NBC News.
It was at the memorial service for former Central College President Ken Weller in 2022 when Smith decided he wanted to come back and teach. Smith said he and Weller, who had started in the role in the same year Smith started his college career, got to know each other well and had discussed the idea of Smith teaching somewhere in the past. Smith found current president Mark Putnam outside the memorial and told him he wanted to teach at Central.
Some of the connections Smith made over his career have followed him to campus. He’s had TV host and producer Andy Cohen as a guest speaker in class and helped connect the college with former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo to have her come to campus Sept. 30 for a reading of her works and an interview.
His students, however, didn’t know about his career before coming to Central, as they generally don’t watch network news. He said many of them mentioned Smith’s name to their parents, who said that if he was teaching a class, they’d better take it.
Central College campus in Pella. (Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
When asked why he decided to teach at Central instead of somewhere else, Smith borrowed some “Star Trek” technology to help describe it — a tractor beam. He said he wasn’t sure if it was the college or himself pulling him back to Pella, but he was drawn back all the same. While his many visits to town for family and campus, for board meetings as well as family, were wonderful, he said, there’s nothing like really being back.
“I know I’ve lived the most fortunate life of any human alive, and I’m here, and that I have permission to try to do this thing, and that I’ve been welcomed, and it’s just turning out to be this really great experience, it’s kind of overwhelming sometimes,” Smith said. “It’s not kind of, it is overwhelming sometimes.”
One of Smith’s favorite spots on campus can be found just a floor above his office — a quiet library, with rows of narrow bookshelves, tables and chairs, and hidden rooms for private study. He said he spent time just wandering around the previous day, taking in the aroma of the books and speaking with the students he came across. Some he knew, some he didn’t.
On this particular visit, he merely gave a nearby student a mischievous look, one shushing finger over his mouth, and turned to admire the view of a bright and sunny campus through the windows.
“It’s always felt like home when I come here,” Smith said. “So why wouldn’t I go home to teach?”
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