The main commemorative service took place at the College because the poet had long been a part of life in the town and at the College. The presidents of Smith and Mt. Holyoke Colleges and UMass participated in honoring Frost at the service. A four-college mixed choir performed a musical tribute during the ceremony. Although open to the public, dignitaries and close friends of the poet were personally invited to attend the tribute. Public figures around the world released notes of sympathy on Frost's passing. The Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, whom Frost had visited, called him "an outstanding poet and citizen of the United States."
Frost's passing was greatly mourned by the College community, as he had taught English at the College starting in 1916. He left after four years, returned again in 1923, taught two more years, and then returned once more in 1926. His reputation and fame were firmly cemented as a poet of the New England countryside. Frost retired from the faculty after the death of his wife in 1938 and never returned to full-time teaching. In 1947, Frost once again returned to the College as the Simpson Lecturer in Literature and visited the College various times over the years for poetry readings and informal meetings. Various students spoke on what an honor it had been to be able to work so closely with such a respected poet.
Only months before his passing, Frost had come to the College to speak during the Parents' Day Program, and again upon receipt of an anonymous gift of $3,500,000 to be used for the construction of the new Robert Frost Library. At the time, College President Calvin Plimpton said, "No name seems to us more apt than that of Robert Frost. Through the years he has represented in his life and in his poetry the ideals of liberal education."