Press Release

Date: 11-05-12
Name: Rob Forman
Phone: 973 972 7276
Email: formanra@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ Mourns the Passing of Leroy F. Smith, Jr.

email this

print this

see photo(s)

Share this:

	digg this!
	del.icio.us
	facebook
	newsvine

NEWARK -- It is with great sadness that we mark the death of Leroy F. Smith, Jr., retired associate director and 38 year veteran of UMDNJ Emergency Medical Services, who died October 29 at age 70. Smith also served UMDNJ with distinction from 1974 until his death as a member of the University’s Board of Concerned Citizens. Smith was revered in Newark, where he was a lifelong resident, for saving numerous lives both on the streets of the city and in rescues from burning buildings where he risked his own life to preserve others’. One such rescue occurred just a day before he was to undergo open heart surgery. Smith was also instrumental in defusing a life threatening situation in 1980, when inmates at the Essex County Jail took a corrections officer hostage and threatened to kill the officer. It is a widely shared belief that the trust he built up among the inmates was the reason he was able to resolve the crisis.

In 1996, Smith received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degres from Essex County College.

After ill health forced him to retire from UMDNJ’s EMS in 2007, the building that had housed the jail was renamed the “Essex County Leroy F. Smith, Jr., Public Safety Building.” The building has since been converted to accommodate offices for the county sheriff, the county prosecutor and other county agencies.

Memories of Leroy Smith among members of UMDNJ EMS are very personal. Terry Hoben, NorthSTAR air medical coordinator at UMDNJ-University Hospital, says, "Leroy Smith had leadership, energy and passion that I’ll never forget. In my 27 years here, he helped me through my successes and my challenges." Hoben adds, "He treated me like a son and I was not the only one. He treated in the EMS family as if they were his sons or his daughters, and he will sorely be missed."

Funeral services will be private. Visitation will be held at Megaro Memorial Home, 503 Union Avenue in Belleville, on Tuesday, November 6, from 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm and Wednesday, November 7, from 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm. http://www.megaromemorialhome.com/

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is New Jersey’s only health sciences university with more than 6,000 students on five campuses attending three medical schools, the State’s only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and New Jersey’s only school of public health. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, which provides a continuum of healthcare services with multiple locations throughout the State.