Smertenko, Clara Millerd (1935)

SMERTENKO, WYCKOFF, DOUGLASS, BOYER

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 9/13/2010 at 11:22:37

The Grinnell Herald; 1935

MRS. SMERTENKO LOST OVERBOARD IN YELLOW SEA

Clara Millerd Smertenko, Grinnell College graduate and a former member of the college faculty, has been reported missing from the Japanese liner Taiyo Maru in the Yellow sea, according to word received the first of the week by Prof. and Mrs. G.P. Wyckoff from M. Hale Douglass, librarian of the University of Oregon in Eugene, where Mrs. Smertenko has been professor of Greek and Latin for a number of years. The message announcing her disappearance came to President C.V. Boyer of the University of Oregon from Captain Tomoika of the Taiyo Maru.

Mrs. Smertenko, who was a woman of exceptionally brilliant mental talents, a fine student and teacher, was one of a party of University of Oregon people who are touring the Orient this summer. The message, dated July 22, stated that she had been lost overboard. There were no details of the tragedy.

News of her death will be received with deep regret by her wide circle of friends.