Westbrook High School

Last Thursday, the WHS Marching Band & Color Guard lost a huge member of their community. Jeff Smith died tragically in a car accident near his home in New Hampshire. Smith (no relation to WHS Band Director Kyle Smith) has worked with our marching band and color guard for the past seven years. His intense enthusiasm and passion for marching band were abundantly obvious to anyone within earshot of a practice.

Prior to helping in Westbrook, Jeff spent 24 years teaching music and directing the marching band in Norwalk, CT, where he led the band to an impressive 20 conference championships. Upon his retirement in 2010, the school renamed the band room in his honor. The current Norwalk band director and a former student of Smith's said, "He's easily impacted thousands of students and thousands of parents."

Here at WHS, our band students and music staff are grieving the loss of an massive figure in their world. Our thoughts are with Jeff's family, as well as with his enormous extended family that includes all of the students whose lives he touched.