The Smith blood means everything to former DeKalb man, who’s mission is mentoring area youth

DeKALB – Derrick Smith admits fatherhood wasn’t always the easiest concept for him to wrap his head around.

In fact, the former DeKalb resident said he wasn’t where he was supposed to be spiritually and psychologically following a leg injury at age 16. The Northern Illinois University academic counselor and father of four said what followed was a turning point in his life.

“I started doing drugs, I started shooting drugs and before I knew it, I was a victim of my own dabbling with God to point where I got on my knees and begged him to take me back and to take the needle out of my arm and replace it with a bible that I make a vow that I never turn back,” Derrick Smith said. “My second part of my vow was that I would help young people for the rest of my life not make the same mistakes that I made. So, that’s when I changed.”

It took Derrick Smith more than 10 years to get clean, but he hasn’t relapsed since. Around that time, he married the mother of his youngest son and started a home where he and his sons could all stay.

Derrick’s son, Derris Smith, said he appreciates everything his father has done for him, which included showing up for his son in multiple ways.

“My father was very hands-on,” Derris Smith said. “Growing up, we came from Gary, Indiana, me and my mother coming from Gary. I was in Kindergarten. At that time, Gary was 99% Black. Coming to DeKalb, it was 99% white. You know, it was in the ‘80s. You imagine at that young age, it’s a culture shock. For me, my dad always kept me grounded in my Blackness in the sense that, he would be like, ‘Eyes to the prize’. He would always be like exposing me to different books, documentaries in that sense. But then, this is a father. He was my basketball coach when I was in the third grade. … As far as just showing up, he was always there for me.”

Now I got a place that I know where I belong and I know that’s part of my gift that God has placed in my heart to do and that is working with young people. I don’t want them to make the same mistake.”

—  Derrick Smith, NIU counselor and former DeKalb resident on his work mentoring area youth

Derris Smith said his father inspires him so much that he’s followed in his footsteps.

“I now work in education and I work with students,” Derris Smith said. “I do the same because of what I saw him do. I never thought that’d be my journey by any means. I went to school for advertising. I thought I was going to change the way people write commercials. I got a taste of it. Now that I work in education I completely understand.”

For Derrick Smith, fatherhood has meant moving that nurturing spirit outside the home, too.

Derrick Smith said he has made it a point to help as many young people as he can to find their way in life. He said it helps him to clear his conscience knowing that he’s supported people in their path to sobriety as well.

“You can’t buy me,” Derrick Smith said. “You can’t take me away from my babies. This is God giving me them. He gave me the babies. You can’t pay me to turn my back on them.”

Derrick Smith said he is grateful for every opportunity he’s had to mentor young people in the community.

Derrick Smith touted his involvement in Northern Illinois University’s African American Mentor Program and a men’s club summer mentorship basketball program as two initiatives in the community he’s proud to have been a part of over the years.

“If I hadn’t broken my leg, I wouldn’t have this opportunity,” Derrick Smith said. “I would give up my leg for this opportunity, I swear. Football career, I could say how good I was. I don’t need to be able to play that. I used to tell people that they got to play in college how blessed you was and all that. But no, I was the one that was blessed. Now they still doing different things and fumbling around. Now I got a place that I know where I belong and I know that’s part of my gift that God has placed in my heart to do and that is working with young people. I don’t want them to make the same mistake.”

Derrick Smith said he learned a lot of what he knows about being a father from his dad. He said parents are supposed to be teachers, and he believes his father made for a good one when he was growing up.

“My dad taught me how to be a dad,” Derrick Smith said. “I lived in the projects. The projects back then, eighty percent of the households had parents in ‘68. So, we had parents all through the building. … [I learned] about how to listen, how to love, … no matter what’s going on around you, know what you have for your morals and values, and don’t let nobody change you.”

Derris Smith said he feels privileged to have had Derrick Smith as a father.

“Out of all my close friends that I grew up with, I was the only one that had a father,” Derris Smith said. “One of my friends he did have a stepfather. There were probably like seven of us, and us two was the only two that had fathers in the home. He was a father to my friends as well. A lot them they would call him, ‘pops.’ Having that is great. I knew I had that privilege.”

His own father isn’t far from Derrick Smith’s mind. He said he hopes to make his own father proud by becoming the first of his siblings to earn a doctoral degree. Derrick Smith is on pace to accomplish this feat in December, when he is expected to walk in a commencement ceremony to receive his diploma.

“I want him to be there to know that ... one of his children got a doctoral degree,” Derrick Smith said.