Eric Myers ’80 was placing flags on graves for Memorial Day with his daughter’s church youth group when he encountered a solemn Pomona connection 3,000 miles from campus. Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in New York is the resting place for members of the Smiley family, including Albert K. Smiley, the Pomona trustee of the late 1800s whose name is on one of Pomona’s oldest residence halls, where Myers lived his junior year. Today, Myers, who had come across the grave years ago but didn’t remember the exact spot, works at SUNY New Paltz, home to Smiley Art Building, named for the family whose philanthropy supported colleges and civic enterprises on both coasts.
