Ida Weaver was born in Muscatine, IA, and attended Grinnell College as a member of the class of 1914. While at Grinnell, she belonged to the Girl's Glee Club. In 1916, she married Elmer P. Steinmetz, who ran a button factory in Muscatine. They had one son, Ladd W. Steinmetz.
Steiner was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and emigrated to the United States in 1886. He was born Jewish and converted to Christianity as an adult. He attended Oberlin Theological Seminary and received his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1891. Steiner taught at Grinnell for many years. Steiner Hall on campus is named for him.
Edith Renfrow Smith was born in 1914 in Grinnell, Iowa. In 1937, she became the first black woman to graduate from Grinnell College.
Mrs. Smith was given an honorary degree by College in 2019. In 2022, she was inducted into the Grinnell High School Alumni Hall of Fame. In December 2022, it was announced that the college's new residence hall and civic-engagement quad would be named Renfrow Hall in her honor.
Monique Shore is an ex-member of the class of 1990. She is a member of Team Renfrow (Professor Tamara Beauboeuf, Monique Shore, and Grinnell College students Hemlock Stanier, Libby Eggert, and Evie Caperton) who worked on extensive research into Edith Renfrow Smith and her family roots in Grinnell.)