By Clark Judge
(January 25, 2024) — Killingworth’s Charlie Smith will be inducted into the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame on January 25, 2024, and it’s about time. There’s virtually nothing … and nobody … in Killingworth untouched by Smith’s generosity and diligence over the past 50 years.
No matter where you go or whom you meet in Killingworth, there’s a story about Smith. Usually, it’s about volunteering for something to benefit the town. But sometimes, it’s just about Smith’s involvement in almost everything Killingworth.
Shortly after Nancy Gorski took over as Killingworth’s First Selectwoman in 2021, for instance, she was asked if she knew … or ever heard of … Charlie Smith.
She laughed.
“Who doesn’t?” she said. “I talk to him every day. He’s everywhere.”
She’s right. The Killingworth Ambulance Association … Lions Club … Chamber of Commerce … Killingworth Historical Society … Killingworth Congregational Church … the local food pantry … all have histories with the 85-year-old Smith.
“He’s an institution in town by himself,” said Cathy Iino, Killingworth’s former First Selectwoman for 12 years. “I first learned about him when people told me that when he asks you to do something… or to contribute to something … you don’t say, ‘No.’ That’s because he won’t let go, which is all for the good of the town.”
A former captain in the U.S. Air Force, Smith was a Certified Insurance Consultant and Vice President with Thompson and Peck in New Haven before moving to Killingworth in 1969, where he raised two children with his wife, Sandy. It wasn’t long afterward, though, that he plunged headlong into volunteering for a slew of non-profits, many of which he continues to serve. For instance:
— When the Killingworth Ambulance Association started in 1971, he was in on the ground floor as an EMT, CPR instructor and first president of its board of directors.
— That same year, he became a charter member of the Killingworth Lions Club and its third president. But that’s just the beginning. He’s held a litany of positions with the Lions, including Vice President, newsletter editor, current membership chairman, crime watch chair, 35th anniversary chair and 40-year member of the board. “You name it,” daughter Christina Stille said, “my Dad has served in that capacity for the Lions.”
— He was vice president of the Killingworth Historical Society for two years, starting –you guessed it – in 1971. “It was a busy year,” said Smith.
— He was a founding board member of the Killingworth Chamber of Commerce and was named its Vice President.
— Since 1970, he and his wife have been members of the Killingworth Congregational Church, where he served 12 years as a trustee, 20 years as an usher, six as a moderator, 10 on the stewardship committee and eight years as the committee’s chair, capital campaign chair and parsonage painting chair.
— He was chairman of the church’s Preservation 2020 committee, which raised nearly $500,000 to renovate the 204-year old structure, the most noteworthy landmark in Killingworth. The church celebrated Preservation’s completion last October, with Smith given one of the last pieces of the church’s original building in appreciation of his work. (photo above, right, with Committee member Leslie Judge).
— Thirty years ago, he joined the board of the Community Soup Kitchen in New Haven, which feeds 250 people a day, five days a week. There, he became president, vice president and finance chairman, and he initiated and chaired a walkathon that raised over $200,000. He continues to transport food to the pantry every Thursday morning.
“For years, he was volunteering in New Haven one day a week,” said Iino, “and he’d get food from a food distribution center (in Wallingford) and bring it back to our food pantry (Helping Hands). But he was doing it by himself, and nobody realized it. Charlie Smith is one of those rare people without whom towns like ours wouldn’t flourish.”
Finally, someone outside of Killingworth noticed, and hallelujah. A recipient of the Connecticut Wartime Service Medal in 2014, Smith has been involved with Killingworth’s Memorial Day celebration since 2005 and has chaired its Memorial Day Activity since 2017.
Now comes this.
“It’s important to me,” Smith acknowledged, “because it recognizes veterans after their military service, what they learned in the military and how they applied it to business and life in general. Now, what does it mean to me, personally? It’s probably better than any financial reward you could ever receive. You can’t put a price on some of the things that happened over the last 50 years.
“That’s number one. Second, it’s probably more about my wife, Sandy, than anything else. In those early days, almost every night we were out doing ambulance work … or on calls … or starting the Chamber … or the Lions Club. So I would be away at work until 6, then out the door at 7 for meetings. But it’s also important to both Christina and Kurt, our son. They often wondered where Dad was, and the response would be, ‘Oh, he’s out there doing this and that.’ I think that’s a reward, too.”
Smith is one of 12 inductees to the Veterans Hall of Fame, established to recognize lifetime contributions of veterans after their completion of honorable military service. It is not, however, a military hall; it’s an honor to acknowledge veterans for their contributions to society after military service … with Smith the ideal choice.
“The state of Connecticut,” said his daughter, “and certainly the town of Killingworth, has certainly become a better place because of Charlie Smith’s devotion to community service and volunteerism. My Dad’s spirit of action is not just a notion; he put his words into action.”
