Doris Smith, 55, a longtime employee at St. Scholastica Academy who soared above her job duties to establish and coordinate African-American cultural awareness programs, died Tuesday, Jan. 9, of breast cancer in the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. Throughout the more than 20 years she spent at the all-girls school–first as a switchboard operator and later as a library assistant and circulation desk supervisor–Mrs. Smith thought of her work environment as a second home and considered its employees to be family. “She was very committed to the importance of women doing all that they could to be their best person,” said Sister Suzanne Zuercher, president of the academy. “She particularly was invested in making sure the African-American members of our student body would value their education and use their talent.” Mrs. Smith, who served as an informal counselor, founded and moderated a school group to educate students about African-American traditions. She also started the school’s first step-dance team and coordinated Black History Month assemblies. Mrs. Smith, a Jackson, Miss. native, moved to Chicago with her family in 1966 and soon began working at the school. “Everybody was like family there,” said her daughter Rolanda Young. “She loved helping the kids and that was her reward.” Other survivors include her husband, Ernest; another daughter, Felicia Young; her mother, Helen Young; three sisters, Zenola Quinn, Cecelia Young and Jeanette Eubanks; a brother, Curtis Young; her grandmother, Mattie Dunson; and five grandchildren. Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday in Johnson’s Funeral Home, 409 W. North Ave., Chicago. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in Prince of Peace Baptist Church, 5450 W. Van Buren St., Chicago.
