Later Life
"Old Specs" as he was affectionately called by cadets, Smith had a long career as a mathematician and a military man. He was the first Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), serving from 1839 to 1889: building it up before the Civil War and rebuilding it after its near-total destruction during that war.
Francis Henney Smith was the author of An Elementary Treatise on Algebra (1858) and co-author of The American Statistical Arithmetic, Designed for Academies and Schools (1845), Best Methods of Conducting Common Schools (1849) and College Reform (1850) and translator of An Elementary Treatise on Analytical Geometry (1860). Smith is also known as Sigma Nu International Fraternity's spiritual founder.
Francis H. Smith is buried in Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia. His correspondence is retained by VMI.
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