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Tori Haring-Smith

Tori Haring-Smith

Former president | Washington & Jefferson | Class of 1980

How devoted a master's and Ph.D. student was Tori Haring-Smith?

This devoted ...

“My most memorable spot is the first-floor seminar room in the English Building, where, as a graduate student, I had a seminar with Dr. Jack Stillinger," says Haring-Smith, who served as Washington & Jefferson College's president from 2005-17, becoming the first woman to hold that office.

“There were lots of huge cockroaches in that building and, sitting with my legs under the seminar table, one roach ran up my leg under my jeans. I had such respect for the professor that I did not scream but hit one leg with the other and felt the thing fall on my shoe.

"When the three-hour seminar was over, I stood up and there it was — dead on the floor.

That’s respect for a teacher.”