Richard Smith

Coach William Richard Smith passed away on November 8, 2024. Richard was born on September 29, 1938 in Fitzgerald, Georgia. He graduated from Fitzgerald High School in 1956 and then received a Bachelor of Science in Education from Georgia Southern in 1960.

Richard grew up in Fitzgerald, Georgia. At Fitzgerald High School, Richard played football, basketball, and baseball. He was the star center of the basketball team, leading his team in scoring his junior and senior year. He was the catcher of the baseball team. He had an amazing batting average of over .400 in his senior year and was offered a minor league baseball contract.

Richard married his college sweetheart Barbara Williams in June of 1959. She supported him through all his endeavors, and he dearly loved her. This year they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

In 1960, Coach Smith became the Head Boys’ and Girls’ Varsity Basketball Coach, Assistant Football Coach and Head Baseball Coach at Irwin County High, leading the boys basketball team to a Holiday Tournament Championship.

In 1961, Coach Smith moved to Roswell and began his 28 year career at Roswell High School. He was best known as the Head Coach for the Varsity Boys Basketball teams for 22 years and as Head Coach for Track and Cross-Country teams for 15 years. He also served as Head Coach for the Varsity Girls Basketball teams for 6 years and as an Assistant Football Coach. In the 1960s, he helped start the Roswell High Booster Club and the Roswell Relays.

His Roswell Varsity Boys basketball teams’ career record was 384 wins and 186 losses, one of the best winning percentages in Georgia High School history. His 384 lifetime wins is the most of any basketball coach at Roswell High School. He was named 1971 Georgia Class A Coach of the Year by the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association as he coached the basketball team to a State Championship. In the later 70s and 80s, his teams reached the Elite Eight and Final Fours of the Georgia State Championships several times. During his tenure at RHS, his basketball teams won many Sub-Region and Region Championships, as well as Holiday Invitational Tournaments.

Coach Smith’s 1973 RHS Cross-Country team won the Region Championship and finished third in the State Finals. He coached the 1974 Roswell Track team to second in the State Championships. His Cross-Country and Track teams also won many other Sub-Region and Region championships, as well as many Invitational Relay Meets. He coached many of his players to State Championships in their individual Track events.

Richard served as the first volunteer Recreation Director for the City of Roswell, serving for free (except for a small grant from a federal program for summertime programs) for two years in 1965 and 1966. In addition to teaching, Richard received his Real Estate Broker’s license and started his own real estate company, Richard Smith Realty.

As a teacher at Roswell High, Richard taught a variety of subjects from personal finance to PE, but was probably most famous for being a driver’s education teacher. As he taught so many students how to drive, he also served an informal role as a counselor. In later years, many former students told him how much they appreciated the life advice that he had given them during those driving sessions.

After “retiring” from Roswell High School in 1989, Richard and Barbara moved to the beautiful mountains in Highlands, North Carolina, where he became a teacher and coach at Highlands High School for another 15 years before finally retiring in 2004, finishing a 45 year career as a teacher and coach. In Highlands, just like in Roswell, Coach Smith tried to inspire students to achieve their goals and be better people. If you walked around Highlands with him, it seemed that everyone in town knew him and always wanted to talk to him.

Richard always loved gardening and had a vegetable garden every summer in both Roswell and Highlands. He became an expert in growing Hostas. He and Barbara hosted many gardening tours of their unique property in Highlands. Richard and Barbara loved the mountains and they often acted as unofficial ambassadors to persuade people to visit Highlands.

Richard grew up attending Arbor Baptist Church in Fitzgerald. When he moved to Roswell, he began attending First Baptist Church in Roswell, eventually becoming a deacon in the 1960s. He tried to live all his life as a Christian and nowhere was this demonstrated more than in the turbulent times of the 1960s, where he took an active role in helping integrate the sports at Roswell High School.

Due to the illness of Richard’s daughter Suzanne in 2023, Richard and Barbara moved to Lake Oconee, Greensboro, GA where he lived the last part of his life enjoying fishing, bird watching, and gardening.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a donation to the IDEALS Foundation, Inc., a 501-c-3 organization that runs leadership programs for high school athletes. https://www.idealsleadership.org/

Alternatively, Coach Smith would probably tell you that he would be honored if you just take someone you love to a ball game in his memory.

Richard was predeceased by his daughter Suzanne (2023) and his brother Steve (2013) and the family is comforted by the fact that they have been reunited in heaven. Richard is survived by his wife (Barbara), his son (Rick and his wife Carrie), granddaughter (Haley), grandsons (Xander and Wesley), two sisters (Laurene and Sandra) and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. Richard was surrounded by his immediate family at death who were telling him how much they loved him. Some of his last words were “Love is all around us.”

A visitation for Coach Smith will be held Saturday, November 16, 2024 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at Roswell Funeral Home, 950 Mansell Road, Roswell, GA 30076, followed by a funeral service at 12:00 PM.