Marion L. Bonner Smith papers

Marion Lillian Bonner Smith (1907-1983) was the daughter of Arthur Bonner and Irene Shoemaker Bonner, members of Byberry Monthly Meeting. In 1937 under the care of Byberry Meeting, she married Newlin R. Smith (1904-2001), son of Dr. J. Russell Smith, a prominent geography professor. Both were graduates of Swarthmore College, Marion in 1929, and Newlin in 1928. Newlin Smith earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University and taught economics at Tufts University. Marion earned an M.A. from Middlebury College and taught high school. They had two sons, Linford Russell Smith (1945-1973) and James Fenwick Smith (1949-2017). Linford Smith was a Swarthmore College graduate, Class of 1967, and Fenwick became a renowned flutist with the Boston Symphony. The Smiths retired to Medford Leas, New Jersey, where both were active in the community and Quaker concerns and life-long supporters of Swarthmore College.

Marion Bonner Smith's father, Arthur Bonner (1874-1964), had deep roots in the Society of Friends and was related to many Pennsylvania and New Jersey Quaker families. His father was James Bonner, Jr., (1838-1911) who married Rebecca Knight (1842-1926), daughter of Richard Knight and Rachel I. Kirk, under the care of Byberry Monthly Meeting in 1863. James was the son of Benjamin Bonner and Lydia Ann Walton Bonner who married in 1834 under the care of Byberry, and Benjamin was the son of James Bonner and Uree Cadwallader. Marion's mother was Irene T. Shoemaker (1874-1949), daughter of Linford Shoemaker (1850-1917) and Mary Harding (1853-1906) also of Byberry.

Newlin Smith was the son of J. Russell Smith and Henrietta Stewart Smith. The Smith family had roots in Goose Creek Monthly Meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia. J. Russell Smith (1874-1966) was received on certificate from Goose Creek to Swarthmore Monthly Meeting in 1910. He studied and taught economics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business, (1903-1919), and then chaired the economic geography program at Columbia University's Business School. He remained at Columbia until 1944, publishing significant books on economic geography. He died in Swarthmore, and his papers are deposited in the American Philosophical Society.