By Diane Rey | March 13, 2019
State Sen. William “Will” C. Smith Jr. fondly recalls talking politics with his dad. But he didn’t always appreciate those conversations as a teenager.
Back then, he was often more interested in borrowing $20 to take a girl to the movies, he said. But his father, a cab and, later, a limo driver, wanted him to sit down and discuss the latest item he’d clipped from the newspaper, often about rising African Americans politicians like Doug Wilder, first black governor of Virginia.
His father would tack those news clips on his bulletin board, and they grew to be 15 years’ deep.
William C. Smith Sr. died of a heart attack in 2006 on his son’s first day of law school. He never got to see him become a practicing attorney, get voted into office, or join the United States Navy Reserve, but his influence is still strong.
When Smith deploys to Afghanistan at the end of the month, he’ll take a photo of his father along with him.
“He believed people could do anything,” he said.
Smith, 37, is adopting his late father’s optimistic attitude as he works to finish his legislative agenda before his March 29 deployment, 10 days before Maryland’s legislative session ends April 8.