Mr. Jay Smith

‘I was born in Port Arthur. My dad (Richard Smith) was attending Lamar Tech at the time as an athlete in the basketball program. I was born and lived pretty close to the fieldhouse at the time and always had that connection. My paternal grandparents lived in Bridge City, TX. My father accepted a position in high school coaching in West Virginia where my mother was from and so, I was raised in West Virginia, I attended West Virginia University after graduation from high school in 1979…had some failures in West Virginia…so, we as a family decided that I would move in with my grandmother in Bridge City and commute to Lamar and study accounting. I was in Lamar for the last year and a half, part of my junior year and all my senior year and that would have been 1985. …My studies were not strong in West Virginia… when I arrived at Lamar, I attended classes, studied, led me to get good grades, which then led me to being recruited into the CPA accounting world in Houston, Texas. I do contribute financially to Lamar on an annual basis. One of my best and closest friends happens to be your uncle Richard at Lamar, and so, I value that a lot. Again, my father was an All-American basketball player at Lamar. Although, we are from West Virginia and not a lot of folks there are familiar with Lamar, we are pretty fond of Lamar. I attended the basketball games at Lamar Tech as a juvenile from age 1 to 3. So, I was at Lamar very early in my life.’