LTC Frank A. Smith’s Daughter Zella Creates a Legacy in His Honor

LTC Frank A. Smith ’45

Zella Smith Anderson, Esq., cried as she placed the class ring of her father, the late LTC Frank A. Smith ’45, in a crucible with rings of 54 other West Point graduates to be melted down and used to form rings for the Class of 2020. It was a powerful and poignant moment. To further honor her father, Zella is leaving the bulk of her estate to the West Point Association of Graduates.

“There pretty much wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I cried the entire time, but I am glad I did it,” Zella says of attending the West Point Association of Graduates’ ring melt ceremony in January. “It was great to meet so many wonderful people and to be a part of an event like this.”

Zella said that her bequest was an easy decision after growing up traveling the world in a military family and knowing that West Point was her parents’ favorite place and institution.

“I don’t have any children, and I don’t really have any family to leave it to—I am close with some cousins but none of them are in need,” she explains. “I am making a specific bequest to one friend, but the rest will go to West Point in memory of my dad. 

“I know that West Point is an institution that will never change; I believe in its core values and purpose. And it meant so much to my parents; I just knew that was really where the money needed to go. I’m not creating a scholarship or special fund; I want it to go wherever it is needed most.”

By designating support for the Superintendent’s Endowment in her will, Zella’s bequest will help provide a dependable source of funds to sustain the Academy’s Margin of Excellence Programs in perpetuity.

LTC Smith’s career

LTC Frank A. Smith graduated from West Point in 1945 and served two tours in Korea. He was then stationed at Great Lakes, Illinois, where he met the love of his life, Zella Wilkinson. They were married in 1956, and their daughter—named after her mom—was born a year later. As a young girl Zella lived in Germany and traveled throughout Europe by train and ship. The Smiths returned stateside in 1963 and settled in eastern Pennsylvania.

LTC Smith retired in 1966; and the next year the family moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of the U.S. Army War College. Several of his West Point classmates also retired in Carlisle, and they all enjoyed attending alumni reunions at the War College and other social gatherings. The family also visited West Point often for reunions and sporting events. LTC Smith worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as director of computer operations for 15 years, retiring for a second time in 1982.

Zella’s career and nonprofit passion

Zella attended Dickinson College in Carlisle and went on to the Dickinson School of Law. She practiced law for 25 years—much of it for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of General Counsel where she prosecuted insurance companies that had violated the law and litigated insurance coverage disputes.

A passionate animal lover, in 2003 Zella founded the nonprofit Central Pennsylvania Animal Alliance (CPAA), whose mission is to save the lives of dogs and cats through spay/neuter programs, training and rehabilitation, and public outreach and education. In 2005, CPAA created Hounds of Prison Education (HOPE), an innovative program that pairs carefully selected prison inmates with rescued dogs; each dog lives at the prison with an inmate for several months while the inmate trains the dog and prepares it for adoption, all under the supervision of HOPE volunteers and professional dog trainers. Zella retired as an attorney in 2011 to devote her time to CPAA.

LTC and Mrs. Smith with Zella in 2010

Caring for her parents

Zella continued to live near her parents and cared for them as they aged. LTC Smith died at the age of 93 in 2015 and is inurned at West Point with his wife, who had died the year before. They were married for 58 years.

“He lived the West Point creed every day,” Zella says. “He was a kind, generous, and honest man with a great sense of humor; the same man when people weren't watching as when they were; the one who taught me to persevere; a sounding board for my ideas and dreams; and a wonderful storyteller, especially about his West Point days. West Point meant everything to him, and he never took his class ring off.”

The ring melt ceremony

Participating in the ring melt this year just felt like the right thing to do, Zella says. Twenty-six families attended the ceremony at Eisenhower Hall’s Crest Hall for the 2019 Ring Melt for the Class of 2020. Fifty-five rings, the second largest number ever donated in a single year, were placed in the crucible.

A few ounces of legacy gold taken from last year's melt was added, connecting all 18 other melts that have occurred. The rings were then taken to be melted at a temperature of about 2,000 degrees. The liquid gold was poured to create an ingot presented to the company making the rings that will be given to the Class of 2020 in August.

“The donor has the option of saying something about their loved one at the ceremony, but I couldn’t do it because I would have cried,” Zella says. “I felt sadness knowing that I would not see my dad’s ring again and that my dad is no longer here. It was a very bittersweet moment. But it was amazing to hear from the people who spoke. And I knew my dad would be glad that his ring is a part of the rings of future West Point graduates. To help keep the Long Gray Line alive in all the upcoming classes—I know that is what my dad would have wanted.”