Marvin J. Smith: Irreplaceable
by Jon Lim and Jessen O'Brien
Editors-in-Chief
On Tuesday, April 15th, the Burroughs community lost Plant Operations staff member Marvin J. Smith to complications from pneumonia. Smith had been ill for several years. On Thursday, Dr. Shahan spoke to the student body about Smith, saying that students "may have recognized him by his wonderful tool belt or his uncanny understanding of how things work or his crazy cart with the ladder on the side," he continued, saying "Marvin was a gentle, soft-spoken man and a wonderful employee."
In 1981, Smith joined the Burroughs community and worked for year as a night security guard, virtually in charge of everything after hours. Smith lived on campus for over a decade. Since his hiring in 1981, he has been an essential part of Burroughs, repairing and maintaining equipment often before others realized it needed to be fixed.
Ed Philipp, the Head of Plant Operations, noted that Marvin "would get here at 6 am instead of 6:30...He'd go through each mechanical room to make sure everything was working...He'd make repairs before I even found out about them." Philipp also said that Smith was a very dependable worker, one gifted with the ability to take apart a piece of machinery for one malfunction and, in putting it back together, fix dozens of other potential problems.
One instance of Smith's problem solving skills occurred several years ago. When the campus began expanding, Burroughs did not buy carts. Unfortunately, this meant that Smith had no way to transport his tools to far corners of the campus. So Smith made a cart and used it to carry his tools.
Smith was an independent, and hard worker. According to Philipp, "he was always working on something, whether I knew what it was or not." His legacy at Burroughs will continue through the work of his son, David Smith, who is also on the Plant Operations staff. His son recalls coming across his father who would "be down there on the bench with a thousand pieces." When talking of his father's mechanical skills, he also mentioned that Smith "could engineer the parts [of any machine] and make it from scratch." But perhaps he put Smith's commitment to the school the best when he said that his father simply "knew the campus—he could tell you what was going on."
Smith's kindness and dedication was also felt by the student body. Junior Nishi Muddasani remembers when he noticed her mother walking across campus and offered to give her a lift.
As Philipp said, "We're going to miss Marvin, so is the school. I'm not sure he can be replaced." He is survived by his wife, Penny, and two children, Laura Ira and David Smith. Services will held at 6:30 pm on Saturday April 26 at Kingdom Hall, Jehovah's Witnesses, Fenton.