A gifted chemical engineer, industrialist and philanthropist, the late Walter A. Smigel made a profound impact on countless lives in his adopted home of Cortland, N.Y., where he passed away on March 24, 1996. Over the years, Smigel's civic generosity was boundless. SUNY Cortland, especially its athletic facilities and teams, benefited from Smigel's generous nature. A Cortland College Foundation Board member and former director, he frequently helped support individual athletic projects, including the Cortland football team's trip to Canada and France in 1994. A charter C-Club member, Smigel was a longtime friend of the late Fran Woods '56, the former SUNY Cortland Physical Education Department faculty member and athletic director.
In 1991, Smigel made a generous contribution to help establish the state-of-the-art Woods Fitness Facility in the Bessie L. Park '01 Center. His gifts also funded tennis courts for the Cortland City Youth Bureau and the Nautilus Fitness Center and Smigel Olympic Fitness Center at the Cortland YMCA. A former director of the Cortland Memorial Hospital Foundation, Smigel donated the Cardiology Expansion Area in memory of his late wife.
A top athlete himself, Smigel was born on December 19, 1910 in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned a scholarship to Case Institute of Technology, where he played basketball and was captain of the tennis team. He won the 1933 Ohio Intercollegiate Conference singles and doubles tennis championships. In 1933, Smigel graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.
He worked for the C.H. Clark Oil Co. and soon joined the Metallurgical Department at the Cleveland-based Chase Brass and Copper Co. While still operating from a Cleveland chemical laboratory, Smigel joined the R. H. Miller Co. of Homer, N.Y., a chemical specialty producer of wire drawing lubricants. Four years later, he moved his family to New York State and became general manager of R.H. Miller. In 1967, Pennwalt Corp. acquired the company. Smigel continued as president until January 1976 and remained a full-time consultant for two more years.
Within the community, he served on the Homer National Bank Board of Directors and was president of the Smigel Charitable Foundation from 1959 until his death. He was in a group of local investors who purchased the Crescent Corset Co., from J.C. Penney in 1950. He was president and chairman of the board from 1957 until 1971, when N.C.C. Industries purchased Crescent. That year, Smigel purchased a major interest in the Cortland Line Co. and served on its board of directors.
His wife of 52 years, Elizabeth, passed away in 1989. He has two sons: David and Jeffrey.
