Bill Smith, a retired university administrator, currently serves as chairman of the K21 Foundation’s Board of Directors. He is also an active volunteer, assisting several other county organizations. Photo provided.

By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews

WARSAW —  It was a friend who suggested Bill Smith join the K21 Foundation’s board of directors.

“Once I found out it was a philanthropic organization that dealt with the health of the county, (I was interested),” he said.

Today, he serves a chairman of the board.

“It’s an honor to be thought highly enough to be in a leadership role,” he said. “The good works this organization does, we’ve given out as much money as we had 20 years ago, spreading millions of dollars throughout the community.”

Several years ago, the K21 Foundation, in honor of its anniversary, gave eight Kosciusko County communities $250,000 to spend as they see fit to improve the health of its residents. Smith was pleased to see K21 support smaller niche projects, such as assisting with the purchase of a van to transport seniors and assisting Beaman Home with a communications upgrade.

“We support people doing things,” he said.

Another K21 Foundation project Smith is proud of is assisting first responders with upgraded communication equipment .

Prior to moving to Warsaw, Smith had a career in administration in higher education. Prior to his retirement, he was the assistant vice chancellor at Ivy Tech.

He was the vice president of auxiliary services at Southern Oregon University when the chancellorship at Ivy Tech became available.

“I’d never been to Warsaw in my life,” he said.

He interviewed virtually, got the job and packed up and moved to Warsaw.

Prior to that, Smith was the director of housing at IU, where he was the architect for residents programs and services.

“That was fun,” he said of the experience.

Developing the program took about a year. He explained his job was to analyze why some things weren’t working. He discovered the problems arose from merging two different departments with two different cultures. His job was to get them to have a better working relationship.

In school, Smith was a history major. He got involved in student government and then became a resident assistant. It was while working as a resident assistant he realized he could make it a career.

In his spare time, Smith volunteers at the Salvation Army Food Bank, delivers Mobile Meals and serves as president of the Warsaw Rotary Club, which is working on a new dog park to be built on the west side of town. He is also a volunteer for the Kosciusko County Community Foundation reading scholarship applications.

While his original plan was to retire to Virginia or North Carolina, he and his wife, Judy Dye, are very much plugged into the Warsaw community. The couple have two grown children, William III and Michelle.

Smith has lived in the community since 2010.