Adams County was home to at least two historians of national eminence. One was Allan Nevins of Columbia University. Nevins was a Camp Point, Ill., native who twice won the Pulitzer Prize and wrote a multi-volume history of the Civil War and its prologue.
The other was Marshall Smelser, a graduate of Quincy High School and Quincy College. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard under the direction of Samuel Eliot Morison, a Pulitzer Prize historian of maritime and American history. Smelser taught at the University of Notre Dame for almost three decades.
Smelser belonged to the Quincy family known for its photography studio. His parents, Albert and Gladys Alma Smelser, established their business in 1923 in the 600 block of Hampshire Street where, The Herald-Whig reported on April 4, 1954, it was still operated by his brother, Howard. Marshall married Anna Padberg of Quincy and was an assistant field director for the Red Cross during World War II. By 1947, The Herald-Whig reported on Sept. 21
Simpson College has hired Marty Bell to take over as Athletic Director, and he will start his tenure in 2021. Bell was previously in charge of the athletics department at Quincy College in Illinois for over a decade, and he tells KNIA News his philosophy of being a student-athlete is that no matter how long you play the game you love, you will always spend more time working for your professional endeavors, so academics will take you much further in life.
“As much as you want to win games and have a great experience in the field or on the court, you need to have a great experience in the classroom. One feeds the other, the most successful players I had in my career were quite successful in the classroom first, and that success leads to success on the court or field. As long as you keep those priorities straight and keep them in mind, the winning will take care of itself.”