The meaning of family
April 13, 2026 — When Roger Smith III ’28 decided to attend Grinnell, he headed hundreds of miles from his home in Oklahoma City.
While some students are eager to be far from parents, this was not the case for him. His family is incredibly close, and the miles between them have not diminished that bond.
His parents, Roger Jr. and Jennifer Smith, see him regularly throughout the year, mostly at Pioneer men’s golf tournaments. The Smiths have yet to miss a competition, traveling across the Midwest to see him play.
Roger Smith III ’28, middle, posing with his parents at a 2024 tournament.
For the Smith family, the sport is a multigenerational experience. “My father, also named Roger, is a very good golfer and only stopped playing this year at age 86,” Roger Jr. says. “He’s attended many of his grandson’s tournaments including the conference tournament.”
Roger III was golfing by age 7, inspired by his father who is also an avid player. Five years later, he started practicing with a coach, and in high school, he joined the talented team at Heritage Hall Upper School, winning regionals three times and becoming state champions in 2021.
In his first year at Grinnell, Roger III found himself on a team made up of seniors. He competed in all seven Pioneer golf events. At the Central Fall Classic in Iowa City, Smith shot a 4-under-par 68, the third-best round in program history. In March 2025, he was honored as the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men’s Golfer of the Week after placing a team high 12th place at the Wartburg Spring Invite.
“He was nervous about [being the only non-senior] at first, but felt good about it by the end of the year,” says Roger Jr. “This year, they brought in some strong first-year players which has allowed him to take on a leadership role, which has been a positive challenge for him.”
Not only do the Smiths faithfully cheer their son in his athletic endeavors, they also actively support his teammates.
“They take time to talk to all of our players, encouraging everyone and listening to what went right and what didn’t,” says assistant golf coach Chris Zug ’93. “They will also be front-and-center helping look for lost balls to save our players from penalty strokes. They are some of the most down-to-earth people I’ve met in my many years of participating in golf.”
Roger Jr, left, Jennifer, Roger III, and Evelyn take a family photo.
“Food is a central theme for our team,” adds head coach Conner McKay. “Jennifer always has a bag of treats – her popular caramel brownies and seven-layer bars provide a light moment in an otherwise stressful day.”
The Smiths often treat the team to post-round meals, also offering other crucial avenues of support including a monthly recurring gift to the program.
“Budgets for all Grinnell College sports are tight, so we can’t always provide the ‘nice to haves’ that we’d like,” Zug says. To this end, the Smiths purchased customized yardage books for players to have for each course. These hole-by-hole detailed maps provide critical course-specific information.
Attending medical school together, Jennifer and Roger Jr.’s paths diverged when she chose to pursue a Ph.D. Her field is maternal fetal medicine where she focused on high-risk obstetrics. This line of work meant that she was on call a lot.
“As an endocrinologist, I had a pretty flexible schedule and consequently did much of the child-raising,” Roger Jr. says. “However, we made a commitment even when Jennifer was working crazy hours that we would do family dinner together every night.”
The Smiths have put family first throughout their lives. “We take vacations with our children or use our vacation time to visit our children,” Jennifer says. Their oldest child just graduated from UC Davis.
In 2024, Jennifer stepped away from clinical practice to take on a leadership role at INTEGRIS Health as the clinical program medical director for women’s services. “It was a great change that has allowed me to go watch Roger play in college,” she notes.
The Smiths have loved this new travel schedule. “We’ve gone places we’ve never been before,” Roger Jr. says. “From Minnesota to Pella, Iowa, we’ve loved all of the experiences.”
Not only have they gotten to know all of their son’s teammates, but they are also close with the coaches and their families. “Both coaches have been fantastic,” Roger Jr. says. “They are always willing to help in any way, and our son feels totally comfortable asking them for help with anything.”
“Even though he’s far away, you feel like he’s there with family,” Jennifer says.
—by Melanie Drake ’92