By Laurie O’Neill and Laura Hayes — [email protected]
When it came time to submit nominations for this year’s Honored Citizen, John Arena tossed a fellow Concord Independent Battery member’s hat into the ring.
He says he’s always admired Lowell “Sandy” Smith, calling him a “role model of service” and “a good man.”
Smith says it’s still sinking in that the town’s Public Ceremonies and Celebrations Committee chose him for the honor. “It was completely unexpected — a total surprise,” he says.
A fourth-generation Concordian, Smith has followed in his ancestors’ footsteps when it comes to giving back to this town. He and his family have had deep ties to Concord institutions since the late 19th century.
Committee chair Holly Legault says when Smith’s name was put forth this year, the depth of his community service and his involvement in American Revolution commemorations — Smith and his late father, Stephen, participated in 1975 and he and his son will fire a cannon at this year’s ceremonies — stood out.
Smith, she says, is “such a humble gentleman.”
‘Change requires patience’
Smith started volunteering early.
He attended Concord-Carlisle High School, where he was head of the student council and a three-season athlete. He was on the 1964 basketball team that won the Tech Tournament and was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame with his team and as an individual athlete.
When Smith returned to Concord after graduating from Williams College with a degree in economics, the mother of a high school classmate encouraged him to run for School Committee. He was elected in 1970, and during his tenure he served as chair and was on the negotiating committee that worked on a new teachers contract.
Smith compares being on the School Committee and other boards to taking a graduate-level class. “You learn so much, not only about the subject matter that you’re dealing with,” he says.
He has realized that “change, even in a small organization, requires patience, diplomacy, and creativity,” and adds that “the institutions in our community can only thrive with strong and engaged board involvement.”
Smith met his wife, Sally Sanford, while he was earning his master’s in business administration at Stanford University. Sally, a voice teacher and author, is thrilled for her husband, saying, “He’s done a lot of heavy lifting for a lot of organizations in Concord.”
She and Smith lived in California and New York City before returning to Concord when the latter joined an investment firm in Boston. The couple has two children, Thomas (“Trip”) and Samantha, a Yale doctor, who have followed in their community-minded father’s footsteps, he says.
Firing the cannon
It was natural for Smith, he says, to use his decades of experience working in finance at J.P. Morgan and Cambridge Associates to assist many non-profit boards and committees in town.
Among them: Emerson Hospital, Concord Academy, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association, the Concord Museum, the Concord-Carlisle Community Chest, the vestry at Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Concord Free Public Library. His great-grandfather, Henry Francis Smith, was a founding trustee of the CFPL Corp.
Smith has served on the board of Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House since 1997 and is its treasurer. His great-uncle Henry Francis Smith Jr. and Henry’s wife Margaret were among the original Orchard House incorporators. Since 1911, there have been only three years — during World War II — that a Smith relative didn’t serve as treasurer, he says.
Smith has been with the Battery for 63 years. His grandfather, Theodore Lincoln Smith, was the group’s commander in the early 1900s.
His great-grandfather Henry Francis Smith, who arrived in Concord in 1865, hosted President Ulysses S. Grant at the 1875 anniversary of the start of the war.
This year Smith and his son will be with the Battery on April 19, firing a cannon during the dawn salute, and Trip will be in the color guard leading the parade. As an Honored Citizen, Sandy will follow the Battery procession.
