STILLPOINT Archive: last updated 04/13/2016
“We were encouraged to ask questions about ethics, and about how power uses power,” says Herman Smith ’70 of his time at Gordon as a political science and history major. “Gordon prepared me very well for law school, and, even more importantly, for life after law school. It equipped me with academic discipline, and a striving for excellence and thoroughness. It gave me the foundation I needed for the integration of faith and knowledge.”
In February he stepped into a new role at the College as Chair of the Board of Trustees, bringing with him a decades-long immersion in the political and cultural landscape of the Bay State. Recently retired from a distinguished legal career, he has practiced at both trial and appellate courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. Having served as a Gordon Trustee since 1983, he is also no stranger to the opportunities and challenges faced by an evangelical college in New England.
After Gordon, Chairman Smith earned a J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1974, and he served there as an associate clinical professor from 1979 through 1990. In 1990 he was appointed an associate justice of the Housing Court, City of Boston Division, but continued his involvement at B.U. as an adjunct professor, teaching seminars on topics ranging from constitutional and housing law to trial advocacy. In 1994 he was appointed an associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court; he retired in 2011.
A longtime member of Boston’s Park Street Church, Chairman Smith has served as an Elder and as the Moderator of its Board of Elders. His professional affiliations include the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Massachusetts Judges Conference, the Massachusetts Black Judges Conference and the Christian Legal Society.
“All of us at the College,” says President Michael Lindsay, “are delighted to welcome Judge Herman Smith to his new role as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Having a Gordon graduate in this important place of service is a great blessing to our community and a testament to our institution’s great alumni, who give sacrificially to benefit Gordon and our students. Rebecca and I have deep appreciation and love for Herman and Ruth Smith, and I look forward to many years of partnership in the Gospel with them through the ministry of Gordon College.”
