$25 million estate gift to crown legacy of donor who launched the Arboretum

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In 2007, Charles H. “Skip” Smith, an alumnus and State College business owner, forever altered the landscape of University Park when he catalyzed the creation of the Arboretum at Penn State with a landmark $10 million gift.

Now, 18 years later and in the wake of his passing in December 2024, a commitment realized through Smith’s estate has further burnished his legacy at the University with a transformative gift of $25 million. The bequest will help to power the Arboretum’s future growth, alongside related educational and research initiatives.

“Skip’s estate gift is a tremendous capstone to his extraordinary legacy of giving to the Arboretum,” said Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi. “Across the years, his generosity seeded a dazzling variety of gardens and plantings and empowered horticultural experts with the resources to maintain and enhance the Arboretum for future generations. I am deeply grateful to Skip and the entire Smith family for not only championing the idea of the Arboretum but also for leveraging their philanthropy across the years to turn it into a powerful space for pursuing knowledge, building community and enjoying quiet moments of tranquility.”

Smith allocated his estate commitment to address three Arboretum priorities. A gift of $10 million was directed to the Arboretum’s permanent endowment that generates annual revenue to support its daily operations. An additional $5 million in immediate-use funding will go to deferred maintenance and lay groundwork to begin implementing the Arboretum’s 2026 Master Plan Revision. $1 million has been set aside as matching funds to help spur future philanthropy and the creation of new endowments from alumni and friends interested in envisioning their own Arboretum legacy. The remainder of the bequest will be allocated in consultation with the Smith family.

Smith’s estate gift elevates his total legacy of giving to the Arboretum to approximately $43 million.

“The Smith family has deep roots in the Penn State community, and their generosity was the decisive factor that allowed the Arboretum to germinate and grow into what’s become an iconic feature of our community,” said Alyssa M. Wilcox, vice president for development and alumni relations. “Skip’s estate gift is a moving testament to his desire to ensure the Arboretum endures, and it will have a major impact on the pace and scale of its growth in the years ahead.”

A resident of State College, Skip Smith was the son of Harry O. “H.O.” Smith, who graduated from Penn State in 1918 with a degree in architectural engineering. In 1951, H.O. Smith incorporated his construction, real estate development and rental company into H.O. Smith & Sons Inc. After Skip graduated from Penn State in 1948 with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, he worked at his father’s company along with his brothers and fellow Penn State graduates James B. Smith (class of 1950) and Thomas L. Smith (class of 1954). In 1950, Skip founded State College Television Co., which became State College Audio-Visual Supply.

“Our father was a very modest person who avoided the limelight,” said Skip Smith’s son David. “His father was an outdoorsman who passed along to him an appreciation of nature.  As a strong supporter of Penn State, Dad was also aware of Penn State’s vision for an arboretum. Thus, he was able to both honor his father and provide Penn State with a way to allow thousands of people to experience and appreciate the variety and beauty of plant life as he did.”

While discussion of an arboretum on the University Park campus dates back to the early 20th century, planning began in earnest in 1999, when the Board of Trustees approved a plan reserving a 370-acre parcel of land for a future arboretum. In 2007, Smith stepped forward with an initial gift to begin construction of the H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens, honoring his father, his mother, Kathryn Bower Smith, and his first wife, Joan Milius Smith, who was the mother of Skip’s three sons but who passed away at a young age. That gift has been leveraged to encourage almost ten times more philanthropy from others to grow the Arboretum’s gardens and operations. Smith’s 2016 gift to fund conceptual plans for the Arboretum Cultural District created a future vision of development to co-locate the natural and cultural assets of Penn State into a regional destination.

Over the years, Smith continued to be the leading donor to the effort. With his sons David, Jeffry and John, he helped to create the Pollinator and Bird Garden, an international-award-winning garden designed to attract and sustain native bird and insect species vital to the central Pennsylvania ecosystem, and Smith endowed the directorship of the Arboretum in 2021. Last year, Smith came forward with an additional commitment to create the Charles H. “Skip” Smith Soaring Waters Fountain Garden. Coupled with a revised Master Plan, this new landmark will begin welcoming visitors to University Park in 2026, and it reimagines and expands the Margery Enes Smith Soaring Waters fountain, which Smith had previously named in memory of his second wife.

“Today, we welcome more than 250,000 visitors per year who are filled with delight and wonder at our natural beauty,” said Casey Sclar, the H.O. Smith Director of the Arboretum. “We’re a growing destination for the entire region, offering festivals, community events, educational programming from pre-K to gray, and simple serenity experienced between classes or family commitments. We feel a tremendous debt of gratitude to Skip’s visionary leadership. Through his estate commitment, Skip’s impact empowers us to see even deeper roots grow for the Arboretum’s future.”

In addition to his foundational and sustained support for the Arboretum, Smith gave $5 million to support brain repair research in the Eberly College of Science. He stands among the most generous donors in Penn State’s history.

“The Arboretum has grown and matured into exactly what our father envisioned — an environment where visitors can learn about plants and trees, and a place where anyone can go to relax and enjoy what they don’t usually have time to appreciate in their everyday lives — the amazing world of nature,” said Skip Smith’s son John.

The Arboretum at Penn State is home to more than 2,700 recorded plant species, and data has been collected on over 180,000 individual plants. One in six of these plants are part of Penn State research. The H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens are part of 370 acres of Arboretum lands, including fields and woodlands that are being restored, used for research or developed as educational and recreational project sites. Many additional acres of cultivated gardens are planned.

“As part of Penn State Outreach, the Arboretum advances our goals of inspiring discovery, preparing students and serving our entire commonwealth as a place that welcomes all,” said Larry D. Terry II, vice president for Outreach. “Its creation and development are in large part the story of an extraordinary philanthropic commitment to community life. We are so grateful to Skip Smith and his family and to all our donors who have turned a cherished vision of natural wonder into reality.”

Donors like the Smith family advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.