Gerald Smith

Gerald Smith

When Gerald Smith passed away in 2001, a headline over a column written by Scott Bordow of The East Valley Tribune read: An Institution is Gone.

Bordow wrote: "I knew Gerald for more than 20 years, and I can't once remember talking with him about anything other than Mesa Community College. He was hired in 1966 as Equipment Manager and stayed forever. Ostensibly, his job was to keep the uniforms clean and publicize MCC's teams. In reality, he did a little bit of everything."

Gerald even hired a football coach for the College. When we were looking for a head coach in 1997, Gerald arranged to have dinner with former Phoenix College coach Ken Stites. Gerald asked Kenny if he would take the job if Paul Widmer and Bob Minetti came out of retirement to be his assistants. Stites agreed, and the Thunderbirds had a coaching staff.

Gerald was a jack-of-all-trades. He would tell how he pulled cars out of the parking lot which was often muddy in those early days. His steel-cage domain in the Locker Room was always impeccable ? every jersey carefully folded, his tools positioned just so on the wall.

I remember he was strict about players throwing uniforms on the floor. He set the rules and expected the players to follow them. In spite of his sometimes gruff nature, he had the athletes’ best interest at heart, and he was like a surrogate father to many.

As the College's Sports Information Director, he was a walking history book of MCC athletics. He had a passion for keeping statistics. We had to watch him when he was on the sidelines at football games. He'd yell at the officials and get us a 15-yard penalty. And if he wasn't yelling at the officials, he was yelling at the coaches. But that was Gerald.

When people asked Gerald why he never married, his response was, "I didn’t need to. I've got all these dependents here at Mesa."