He has dedicated nearly the last 30 years to quietly – and sometimes not so quietly – working away at inadequate systems until they’re irrevocably altered. And changes made locally with the help of The Dayton Foundation, have had what he calls “the ripple effect.”

He cites The Job Center as an example and the changes to the welfare system that have rippled throughout Ohio, altering the state system and, ultimately systems in other parts of the nation. This wouldn’t have happened without The Dayton Foundation and its volunteers and the gift of Foundation donors’ unrestricted dollars.

An indefatigable volunteer and one of some 2,700 Dayton Foundation donors, Smith says, “You have to believe you can make a difference, and you can. But you have to believe.”

Dayton Foundation donors live that belief through their Foundation funds, which make a difference to people and organizations throughout the Miami Valley.

“I wasn’t the greatest student in high school. I didn’t apply myself and graduated in the bottom 10 percent of my class.

“I sat there at graduation and listened to all the honors given to my classmates. I decided right then and there that when I went off to college, where no one knew who I was, I would start over. It was my second chance.”

A well-known community leader, retired chair of Huffy Corporation and a former Board chair of The Dayton Foundation, Smith’s great passion today is giving high-school dropouts a second chance. He has done this by supporting the Out-of-School Youth Program, which helps former Montgomery County dropouts finish their high-school education through special programs like that at Mound Street Academies.

Through endowed and Charitable Checking Account^SM funds, Fred Smith and his late wife, Pfeife, supported numerous charities, including the Out-of-School Youth Program.