Honoring a True Collegiate Icon

Chances are, if you tell Alex Smith that those honorifics describe his character and define his career, he’ll just smile, then do his best to change the subject.

 

They do, though. They truly do, and whether you’ve known him briefly or shared the ride with him since that day in 1961 when he hitchhiked out to North Mooreland Road and enrolled in the old Boys School, my guess is that you wholeheartedly agree.

        

“Alex,” said his friend Charlie McFall, a colleague for many years and another Cougar classic, “is the all-time Collegiate MVP.”

 

To many, Smith, who will retire July 31 after 47 years, is best known as a fundraiser.

        

It’s a position he assumed at the behest of Malcolm U. Pitt Jr., the headmaster who mentored him as a student, believed in him enough to bring him back after college, and guided him throughout his professional and personal journey.

 

From 1974 through June of 2012, Smith led the development office, first as director, then as vice-president, before shifting his focus to major gifts.

        

During his tenure, the Annual Fund generated $36-million, capital campaigns raised $130-million, and endowment increased from $148,000 to $60-million. In 1994, he received the Nina Abady Award, the highest honor presented by the Virginia Association of Fundraising Executives. In 2001, he received the Robert Bell Crow Award, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s top citation.

 

Look around Collegiate, and you’ll see state-of-the-art facilities, splendid resources, aesthetic beauty, and opportunities galore for students, faculty, administration, and staff. Much of the credit goes to Smith and his associates, but, typically, he puts a different spin on the obvious.

        

“Probably the most gratifying time,” he said, “is when I walk through the campus at night and the buildings are lit up. They look so pretty to me. Collegiate wasn’t pretty when I first started working here. Our campus is a manifestation of a lot of people’s generosity over many, many years. It didn’t happen overnight. All the generosity is built on relationship.”

 

Bobby Ukrop, president and CEO of Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods, has long been an ardent supporter of Collegiate and its programs and knows Smith well.

 

“Alex has the uncanny ability to connect with people through listening to what they’re saying, how they say it, and what’s important to them,” Ukrop observed. “He’s creative. He thinks outside the box. He always tries to facilitate good things, but he’s always in the background. He’s provided good stewardship to the people with whom he’s interacted. He continues to harvest the seeds that were planted many years ago, whether he or somebody else planted them. He’s helped cultivate those seeds, and he’s done it in a masterful way.”

 

Were Smith of a different ilk, he might say, Wow! Look what I’ve done! I’m responsible for all this!

 

“Mr. Pitt taught me never to think that way,” he said, “so I’m not responsible for anything. But I enjoy these buildings. The Lower School to me is the most complete campus now. I really love its looks. The Sharp Academic Commons is one of our latest buildings. It’s so useful and attractive. I’m most proud, probably, when I go to the Robins Campus and see what it’s done for athletics and allowed us to unlock this (the Mooreland Road) campus.”

 

Those who know Alex well know that his influence on the Collegiate Family has always been much more profound than dollars raised and buildings built.

 

He has an institutional memory like no other. He has often regaled his colleagues and friends with humorous anecdotes, reflections, and observations, which have livened up everything from large faculty meetings to lunch-table banter to one-on-one conversations. In his understated, unassuming manner, he has perpetuated as well as anyone the culture of caring, support, and collegiality that has been the institution’s hallmark throughout its century-long existence.

 

Friends, even acquaintances, find that he’s readily accessible, always responsive to their concerns, needs and questions, and eager to lend a hand. His door has always been open. He has a million contacts. Whether you’re seeking guidance on some school-related matter, buying a car or an antique, finding the right mechanic, or retaining an accountant or attorney, he can send you in the right direction.

        

He’s intuitive, unfailingly discreet, and unflappable. He provides wise, insightful, honest counsel. He’s a voice of reason. He’s a big brother/father figure who has earned the abiding respect of, well, pretty much everyone.

 

“Alex is the conscience of the school,” said Middle School head Charlie Blair. “A test of leadership is how one reacts in good times and not-so-good times. You know what you’ll get from Alex: evenness, wisdom, sound advice, direction.”

 

In sports, we’d call Alex the “glue guy,” the player who sets the tone, holds the team together, keeps the ship steady, leads by example, and always brings his A-game.

        

“If that’s a role I’m seen in, I’m flattered,” he said. “Maybe it’s longevity. Maybe it’s because I wear a coat and tie every day that I’m perceived that way.”

 

Speaking of sports…a little-known fact about Alex is that he is one of the most outstanding athletes ever to grace the playing fields of Collegiate. His kind, modest bearing belies a fierce competitive edge, then and now. He ran track and played soccer (when it was a winter sport) as well as a couple of years of basketball, and a season of tennis. What he’s best remembered for, though, are his exploits on the football field where he was a four-year starter at running back and All-Metro honoree.

 

“I remember Alex wearing his Collegiate letter jacket,” said Frank Heiner ’66. “He seemed to have more stars on his jacket than anybody. We were in awe of him. I’m in awe of him now with all that he’s done for Collegiate. It would be a far different place if it were not for Alex’s efforts and successes over many years.”

 

Smith was a member of Coach Grover Jones’ undefeated football 1963 team, which was a charter inductee into Collegiate’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

 

Rick Wiltshire ’64 starred at quarterback on that stellar squad.

 

“One game, I remember Alex came to me and said, ‘Rick, on the first play, I want you to pass it to me over here, and let’s go for a touchdown,’” Wiltshire recalled. “Sure enough, he scored. Never said anymore about it to anybody. That’s just the way he is. He believes in himself. He’s a hard worker. He’s never had anything bad to say about anyone. To me, there’s no dearer person than Alex. He’s a fine, fine individual.”

 

Bryce Jewett ‘64 remembers another moment early in that ’63 season, only the second year Collegiate fielded a varsity football team.  In an effort to test the Cougars, Jones arranged a scrimmage with Hermitage High School, which had a well established, ultra successful, and highly respected program led by his good friend Chester Fritz.

 

“Alex ran around them, over them, and through them,” Jewett said. “He scored four or five times. That was his coming-out party. He was a nifty runner. He had good foot speed, good moves. On every play, he’d give you all he had. He was always that way.”

 

Pettus LeCompte ’71 has known Alex for the better part of 50 years.

 

“You always look up to the guys who are in front of you,” LeCompte said. “Alex was one of the best. He’s the consummate Cougar. He’s guided all of us: the Alumni Association, the Parents Association, every class reunion, fundraising. He’s always thoughtful, always has your best interests at heart. He’s been that way consistently over the years. No put-on. No fake. They broke the mold with him. He’s a real treasure.”

 

After graduating from Collegiate in 1965, Alex went on to Principia College in Illinois where he played four years of football. His 1966 and 1968 teams are in that institution’s Hall of Fame. In the spring of his senior year, he received inquiries from the Cincinnati Bengals, a fledgling American Football League franchise, as well as the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, but he decided that his playing days were over.

 

Alex returned to North Mooreland Road in 1969 as a football, soccer, and track coach and teacher of, at various times, history, English, science, and woodworking.

        

“Teaching and coaching enables you to have a relationship with young people that’s unparalleled,” he said. “Once I moved out of the classroom and off the athletic field, I lost that ability. That was a tradeoff, but when I thought about it…where could I help Collegiate the most with the highest purpose? It looked like it was in the role of raising money and being a thinker for the school on all fronts to try to make this the best possible school.”

 

So, in many ways, he has always taught.

 

“The best advice Alex ever gave me – and it’s the true connection between his love for this place and his success with donors – is to make the small gestures,” said Amanda Surgner ’83, vice-president for advancement. “He writes the notes. He makes these random acts of kindness, the little things, the feel-good moments, like bringing a pie down to the Development Office or clipping an article out of a newspaper for somebody who graduated years ago. He gets great pleasure from that, and the pleasure he provides to other people is enormous.

 

“You’re having a bad day…he perceives that. He might not talk about the exact issue, but he’s going to divert you to a different place. The guy’s a gentleman. He does right by people all the time. He has as much heart as anybody else. You can’t replace Alex. He’s the real deal.”

        

You might have noticed that Alex has spoken sparingly so far. The reason – no surprise – is that he’s loath to talk about himself and his accomplishments, except in a humble, even self-deprecating, manner.

        

Regarding his retirement, he says, “I don’t know how you know it’s time. I’ve watched other people mess it up. Brett Favre stayed too long. Warren Spahn played too long. Joe Pepitone went so long that when he went into a sporting goods store to get a baseball glove when he was playing in the Mexican League, he asked for a discount because he was Joe Pepitone who’d played for the Yankees. The clerk said he’d never heard of him. That crushed him. I think you can outlive your fan base. But I’ll always be a help to Collegiate if anybody asks.”

 

Plans?   He’ll spend time with family, of course. He and Gail have been married 46 years. They have three grown children and four granddaughters.

        

“I have some hobbies that include motorsports,” he added. “I enjoy antique furniture. I mess around with that a little bit. Repair it if it needs it. No big travel plans though. No big nothing. I’m devoted to planning for Collegiate, but I’ve done a terrible job planning for myself. I’ll step away for a while and figure it out.”

 

Ask him about his career and his footprint, and, as usual, he shifts the discussion, giving credit elsewhere, much as he did when he addressed the faculty recently.

 

“I don’t fund-raise,” he said simply and earnestly. “You fund-raise. I just collect the checks.”

 

Sometime this summer, Alex will inconspicuously remove the memorabilia from his office, then turn in his keys, probably to Claud Whitley, our longest-tenured employee. He’ll hop in his Porsche, turn left out of the parking lot, and head toward his home just across the James River.

He’ll never truly leave, though. Nor will he be forgotten. His influence is forever. His legacy is indelible. So it is with icons.

                                  -- Weldon Bradshaw