Cleveland, Ohio – December 21, 2017 – Raymond Smiley, age 90, a 1944 graduate of Holy Name High School and a 1952 graduate of John Carroll University, and his wife, Eleanor, have recently donated to six Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Cleveland, two out-of-state Catholic high schools, and two area universities gifts averaging $250,000. The gifts were made in honor of Auxiliary Bishop Roger Gries, OSB, who, when Abbot at St. Andrew Abbey, invited Smiley to join the Abbey’s Financial Advisory Board in the 1980s. Smiley says he has “a great admiration for Bishop Gries’ dedication to, and enthusiasm for, Catholic education.”
Many of the recent gifts were made to high schools attended by the Smileys’ children and grandchildren – Beaumont, Benedictine, Holy Name, Magnificat, Padua Franciscan, and St. Ignatius in the Cleveland area, as well as Lexington Catholic in Lexington, KY, and Bishop McGuiness in Oklahoma City, OK. At the university level, gifts were made to Notre Dame College (South Euclid) and a private university, Hiram College. Previously, the Smileys committed, and recently completed, a $2.5 million gift to John Carroll University to establish an endowed chair, the Raymond and Eleanor Smiley Chair in Business Ethics at the John M. and Mary Jo Boler School of Business. The Smileys were also instrumental in funding the Academic Support Center to serve students with learning differences at Notre Dame College.
Bishop Nelson J. Perez remarks: “It is with immense gratitude that I thank the Smileys for their gift to Catholic Education, which not only provides an education based in Gospel values for our youth, but also imparts a lasting and positive change in our communities.”
“Eleanor and I hope these gifts will inspire others to generosity in support of our Catholic schools and in honor of individuals who have impacted their respective lives,” says Smiley.
Ray and Eleanor have eight children and twenty grandchildren. Smiley, a CPA, retired in 1992 from Bearings, Inc. (now Applied Industrial Technologies) as its CFO.
About The Catholic Community Foundation:
The Catholic Community Foundation (catholiccommunity.org) is dedicated to enriching lives by encouraging faithful philanthropy. The Foundation supports the mission of the Diocese of Cleveland to provide for the spiritual, educational, and charitable needs of people throughout Northeast Ohio, and partners with Catholic parishes, schools, families and institutions to manage charitable assets.