LeRoy F. Smith, Jr., Longtime Emergency Services Worker, Has Died

LeRoy F. Smith Jr. wore a lot of hats in his day.

In the 1960s, he supervised recreation services for hundreds of youths in Newark, who played baseball, basketball and other sports under his supervision through the Police Athletic League Program. He is best known for being the associate director of emergency medical services for the University of Medicine and Dentistry, a position he held for 38 years.

Smith, who retired in 2007 and was honored four years ago with a building named after him at the Essex County Courts complex, has died.

A notification went out Monday morning that Smith, of Newark, died peacfully at home, family members said. County officials confirmed his passing later in the day. He was 70.

"LeRoy always did everything for everybody. He was always there - for the young and the old," said Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr., who visited the Smith family upon learning of his friend's death. "Whatever he had, he gave."

In 2008, DiVincenzo and the Essex County Board of Freeholders honored Smith for his long years of service by naming an office building after him. The LeRoy F. Smith Jr. Public Safety Building, located in the county courts complex, was once the county jail but was refurbished into office space. The space now includes offices for the judges of the New Jersey Appellate Court, Congressional offices, the county superintendent of schools, the county vocational-technical schools administrative offices, and others.

At the announcement of the naming of the building, friends told this story about Smith: It was 1980 and there was an inmate uprising in the Essex County Jail. An inmate was dangling Corrections Officer James Dubose out of the window and threatening to let him go. It was Smith who negotiated his safe release and in effect - saved his life.

"LeRoy Smith was practically the first one to get there and the last one to leave, whatever the incident," said Sheriff Armando Fontoura in an interview in 1988. "He was always on the scene of a cop shooting or injury to a firefighter."

Smith, who used a wheelchair after losing his legs to illness, was recalled by other county and elected officials for saving someone from drwoning at Branch Brook Park, getting people out of a burning house, and arranging for medical check-ups for low-income children.

DiVincenzo said he knew Smith for 40 years and was one of the young athletes in Newark who had benefitted from his tutelage.

Funeral arrangements for Smith, who is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren, are pending.