Name: Eric Smith
Family: Wife, Gloria; children, Allison, Leah Anne, Terrie, Brian, Charles; and 12 grandchildren
Pets: none
Education: Juris Doctor, University of Florida 1967
Admitted to the Bar: 1968
Employed by: MaddoxHorne Law Firm; Governance, Inc.
Field of practice: General practitioner: government, criminal law, state and local government consulting and lobbying
Professional Organizations: Florida Bar, Jacksonville Bar Association
Community Involvement: Families of Slain Children Inc. is a community organization of several hundred mothers formed to assist and support grieving families who have lost children to violence in Jacksonville.
How did you get involved?
City Council member Johnny Gaffney asked me to help the organization’s founder, Beverly McClain, with pro bono legal work by fundraising to repair the badly deteriorated building in a high crime location for use as a support center for victims and families and assistance to find contractors willing to donate labor and materials.
How can someone else get involved?
Call Mrs. McClain at 424-8755, to offer to visit the center on Myrtle Avenue. Offer time, talent and/or money to pay the building’s utilities for the month.
What have you learned/achieved through the experience?
Even those who have experienced terrible, tragic personal loss still feel the need to reach out to others to help. The generosity of these wonderful, kind survivors of homicide is deeply moving. It is so gratifying to be able to work together with them in some small way to make a difference in lives and to help make their dream to build and open a memorial center a reality. Every day, McClain and Families of Slain Children are there to console families and engage in crime prevention activities. To see God at work through them is a marvelous experience for a lawyer and a reminder that we can each make a difference every day.
It was also very enlightening to see how many contractors, such as Summit Contractors and Miller Electric, were willing, even with the serious economic recession to step forward and renovate the building when no help was otherwise available.
What was the last book you read or are reading?
“Spy,” by Ted Bell.