A Mountaineer couple's legacy of philanthropy and WVU pride.
As soon as David Smith heard the drums coming from the Pride of West Virginia in the tunnel of the old Mountaineer Field, he was hooked.
The game was in 1978, his first West Virginia University football experience, and he was there with his then-girlfriend, Barbara Burkett, an undergraduate at WVU studying political science at the time.
“I remember going in and sitting down, and everybody was in a great mood. It was a great atmosphere,” David remembered. “This was the old stadium downtown in the bowl. I started getting into it with everybody else, and it was fun. Then I heard the band start the drums in the tunnel. You didn’t see anything, but you heard the drums, and the crowd was going nuts.
“I’m looking around, and going, ‘This is pretty cool. I’m digging this.’ It was getting louder, and then they sprinted out of the tunnel. They started playing, and the crowd went up another notch. I was sold on everything West Virginia at that moment. I was all in.”
Little did he or Barbara know that what began as a love for the Mountaineers would blossom into a marriage and four-plus decades of philanthropic support of their alma mater.
Building a legacy
David Smith grew up in Corry, Pennsylvania, and attended Thiel College for his undergraduate degree before enrolling in the Master of Science in Industrial Relations program at WVU, where he graduated in December 1979.
Barbara is a Charleston, West Virginia, native who earned her undergraduate degree in political science from WVU following the spring 1979 semester.
The two met during the previous summer while working at Coonskin Park in Charleston — Barbara in the golf pro shop and David as a pool cashier. They soon started dating and, after earning their WVU degrees, eventually moved to Ohio. There, Barbara pursued further education, first at Ohio Northern University before ultimately earning her master’s in public administration with an emphasis in human resources from Bowling Green.
After initially struggling to find a quality job out of college due to the economic conditions at the time, David finally got his career started, with his WVU education playing a critical role.
“I was able to find employment, and my master’s was extraordinarily helpful in that, with Lennox Industries in Lima, Ohio,” David said. “That’s where I started. I was there for about five years. I also did quality assurance as a QA manager. Then I went to Frito-Lay and then to Jostens.”
After leaving Jostens, David joined Golden State Foods, a food distribution company that supplies many restaurants around the world, including places like McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, and more. He worked there for 24 years before retiring as corporate director for human resources.
Barbara’s professional start out of college began with an internship in Findlay, Ohio, which eventually led to full-time employment. After working several jobs in Ohio and moving to North Carolina, Barbara began her role as human resources director at what was then called Lexington Memorial Hospital near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she worked for 27 years, first as human resources director and eventually vice president.
As each found success in their professional careers in North Carolina, they always kept their WVU education and their love for their alma mater in their minds.
Giving back
The Smiths’ giving history began in the 1980s, as it did for many at the time, with a phone call from a WVU student.
“That was back in the day before caller ID,” Barbara said. “The phone would ring, you would pick it up, and they would say ‘Hi! I’m so-and-so, a student at WVU. Would you like to donate?’
“At first, I said, ‘I don’t know. We don’t really have much money.’ They said, ‘You can start with just $25.’ They were always so enthusiastic and usually said a little bit about themselves.”
Their first gifts each came in 1984, with David donating $25 to what is now the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics, and Barbara donating the same amount to the Political Science Chair’s Fund in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
Annual donations of modest amounts continued for the next decade, before those contributions increased to the low three figures in the late 1990s.
“It was organic. That was the right thing to do,” David said. “We didn’t have a lot of money. We’re just trying to piece together at that time, but we knew that each of us received grants, aid and tuition assistance. We knew how important that was to us, and we felt if we could give back a little bit, it was the right thing to do.”
During the first two decades of the 2000s, the Smiths’ giving branched out to areas important to them, such as the master’s in industrial relations program and scholarships that held personal meaning to them.
“As we started giving more, we started branching out a little bit,” Barbara said. “We would give some to business, and I started donating to the Robert DiClerico scholarship. He was my favorite professor at WVU in political science. He has since retired.
“I’m sure there are a lot of former students who donate in honor of him. He was a great guy.”
In 2020, the Smiths began working with the WVU Foundation on estate planning, an area of philanthropy where donors can include WVU in their will. Ultimately, the Smiths decided to make a legacy gift to the Chambers College.
While they were proud to support WVU in the future, they were also interested in making a financial difference while they were around to see the impact that assistance can make.
As former students who benefited from philanthropy during their time at WVU, they were motivated to establish a pair of named funds at WVU — the Burkett Smith Scholarship, which has supported Chambers College and Eberly students, as well as the Burkett Smith Internship fund, which will benefit students studying human resource management.
“Both sets of parents helped us when we were in college,” Barbara said. “But we also worked jobs and got scholarships and grants along the way.”
With Barbara and David each working in human resources, they were both involved in the hiring process for their organizations and screened many candidates over the decades. During this time, each saw the importance of not only an education but also the practical application of it in real-world settings.
This experience led to their interest in supporting internships for WVU students and providing them with the financial resources to pursue opportunities they may not have been able to otherwise.
“We realized how important it was for folks to have the opportunity to get some real-life experiences that they could build their resume off and start their career on,” David said. “That would give a head start for those who were motivated. We knew that from both our own personal experiences and our professional experiences.”
Outside of named funds, the Smiths have provided financial assistance to the WVU Football program, the WVU Alumni Association, the Mountaineer Athletic Club, and, of course, the Mountaineer Marching Band that hooked them years before.
A great decision
Now, happily retired in Mooresville, North Carolina, the Smiths maintain their pride and love for WVU. They take annual trips to Morgantown along with several family members and catch a football game, and they watch the Mountaineers on television from home as often as they can.
As Mountaineers living in North Carolina, they are proud to share their WVU spirit with the vast alumni base in their neighborhood and region.
“In this whole area, you can be at the grocery store or at the Y or anything, and you see the Flying WV on the back of somebody’s car or the license plate frame and definitely a lot of people wearing WVU gear,” Barbara said. “There are a lot of WVU supporters here.”
They know the impact their education at WVU had on their lives, and they are happy to see firsthand the change they can make in the lives of current students today.
As they look back on that fateful game in 1978 that Barbara invited David to, the one that convinced him to go “all-in” on the University, they can’t help but smile, seeing how everything has transpired since.
“It was a great decision,” David said. “It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. It gave me a great career focus, a great trajectory and a great experience. And I met my wife.”
The Smiths’ gifts to WVU are made through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University.