Service for Murdered Becker Student Draws Huge Crowd
FUNERAL
Worcester Telegram and Gazette
Rachel Kolokoff
Boston University Washington News Service
September 27, 2008
ST. INIGOES, MD. – The rain fell hard on rural Southern Maryland Saturday morning as some 1,500 mourners gathered at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church to say farewell to William L. Smith, 19, a Becker College student killed in Worcester last week.
Known by most who knew him as “Will,” and by those closest to him as “Little William,” he was a high school all-star baseball, basketball and football player who attended West Virginia University Institute of Technology and Shepherd University before transferring to Becker College this fall to major in sports management.
“I was his first baby-sitter, this little bundle of joy with a big head,” Will’s cousin William Shade said at the service. “The first thing he did was run around with a basketball.”
Church leaders were joined by a gospel choir of friends, family, and community members that swayed back and forth in unison, warming the chilly, wind-swept room with song and charisma.
The crowd of mourners spilled out into the church’s hallways while nearly a hundred more people stood in the churchyard with only umbrellas for cover.
St. Peter Claver is a small church whose red brick walls and wooden rooftop date back to the early 20th century when it was built as one of the first predominantly black parishes in St. Mary’s County.
On Saturday its walls were lined with students, teachers and friends as family and parishioners led the two-hour memorial service.
“I don’t have a favorite memory of Will,” said Timothy Smith, Will’s brother and only sibling. “My life story is my favorite.”
Also in attendance were Becker College administrators John S. Prosser, chairman of the board of Trustees, Vice President Gerald Tuori and a busload of Becker sports team members and head basketball coach Brian Gorman.
“A tragedy like this is hard for any school or institution, but this was even more tragic to us because it was obvious to Will and his close friends that Becker was a great match for him,” Mr. Prosser said in an interview before the service. “Our basketball coach hoped he would’ve made our team and a number of our students and staff grew close to him in a very short time.”
One of Will’s 27 aunts and uncles, Orlando “Tubby” Smith, also spoke at the service. He said he appreciated the support shown by people in Worcester and students at Becker College.
“The support that folks have given us at Becker College has made an unbearable situation bearable and survivable,” Mr. Smith said.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Mr. Smith said his nephew Will was gifted in many ways but especially in his love of sports and competition.
“There was just so much going on. He was preparing to really move on to a different phase” after having tried football, Mr. Smith said. He said his nephew told him he wanted “to try basketball, and that was dear in my heart as well because I’m a basketball coach.”
Mr. Smith coached the University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball team for 10 years and currently coaches the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers. He said he and the rest of the Smith family will miss Will, a special young man who touched many who knew him well and many who were just getting to know him.
“He was just such a young person and he had so much ahead,” Mr. Smith said. “He’s just in a better place now. We loved him dearly and appreciate all the wonderful thoughts and concerns and prayers that people have extended to William and his family.”
Other speakers at the service included John Bohannan, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, the Rev. Leroy Boldley, pastor of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in St. Inigoes, and several other pastors from around the state.
William Smith was stabbed once in the chest outside of an apartment building in Worcester on the evening of Saturday, Sept. 20. He died around 2:45 a.m. Sunday at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center. He was buried in his hometown, Scotland, Md.
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