By Per Peterson
Frank Smith was as much of an institution at Tracy Area Public Schools as the schools themselves.
Smith, who humbly worked as a custodian for the school district for 55 years, received the 2019 Lifetime Service Award at last Thursday’s American Education Banquet.
“Can you believe I spent all but about 11 years of my life in the care and guidance of the school here?” Smith said. “It gave me my education and many, many years of employment … which was an education itself.”
Smith wasn’t prepared to give a speech at the banquet, but threw this out to the audience about his five-plus decades at the schools:
“Can you imagine the number of students, community and educational members, co-workers and the parents that I’ve met all these years?” he said. “They gave me their kindness, friendship and respect, and they’re still passing that on to others in their life. I thank you all for allowing me to have a great lifetime of memories that I have through this school district. Thank you all and God bless.”
Tracy Area Supt. Chad Anderson spoke about how Smith showed genuine concern about others and how they are doing throughout his long career with the school district.
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.