Daniel Smith ’63, ’68 has been giving back since he graduated 50 years ago. This is why the lifelong Westfield resident was lauded in February with a Horace Mann Award for Public Service.
This newly-established honor, also given to three others, recognizes Westfield residents whose lives of service reflect the rich legacy of Horace Mann, the founder of Westfield State.
After he retired from teaching in 1985, Smith was appointed executive director of the Westfield Housing Authority, and he also served as commissioner and chairman of Westfield Gas and Electric and as an original board member of the Westfield Community Development Corporation for 13 years. He currently is the registrar of voters, an appointed post he has held for seven years.
Smith’s community service efforts include serving as president of Sarah Gillett Services for the Elderly and as a board member for the Westfield Red Cross. He served as chairperson of Westfield Public Schools Long Range School Building Needs Committee and as a board member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
He is an active parishioner of St. Mary’s Church, where he taught catechism on and off for 25 years, and he was one of the founding board members of the St. Vincent De Paul Charitable Society. He is a life member of the Westfield Elks, Sons of Erin, Knights of Columbus and the National Education Association.
In 2006, Gov. Mitt Romney appointed Smith as a commissioner to qualify public officials through swearing-in ceremonies. Through that role, Smith stays connected to the University as it’s his job to lead Westfield State Trustees through their oaths of office.
Despite all of these community service efforts, Smith was shocked to learn that he received a Horace Mann Award.
“I thought, ‘Is this real?’ I was stunned,” he said. “You don’t get involved in public service for the awards. You participate because you believe in the missions of the organizations.”
Smith says, “Everybody should give back to an organization they’ve benefitted from.”
After Smith graduated, a number of his family members enrolled in Westfield State, including his older brother, his wife, his son and his three nephews.
“I blazed the trail for all of them to go to the University,” he says, noting that the best part of his experience at Westfield State was the friendships he made.
“It’s a small school, so you become very close. I made some lifelong friends, including some of the professors,” Smith says. “It’s like a family.”
Other recipients of a Horace Mann Award
Dawn Carignan Thomas received a bachelor’s in business and accounting/management and a master’s in business administration from Western New England College. Thomas served as a member of the Board of Trustees for Westfield State for four years and as a member of the Westfield State Foundation for seven years. Her community service efforts include serving as treasurer of the Board of Directors for the Carson Center for Human Services; as a founding board member of the Westfield Historic Industries Preservation Project; for the Westfield Woman’s Club; and for the Industrial Development Commission for the City of Westfield. Thomas is currently vice president and chief financial officer for Instrument Technology, Inc. This is not the first time Thomas has been honored for her professional and public service accomplishments. She was named the 2009 Business Woman of the Year by the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce and a Paul Harris Fellow by the Westfield Rotary the same year.
Lisa McMahon has a bachelor’s degree in social work from Elms College. She worked closely on the creation of Westfield State’s housing at Lansdowne Place and collaborated with Circle K to establish and maintain HOOT (Helping Out Our Town) Day. McMahon’s many community service efforts include serving as president of the board of the Shurtleff Children’s Services, Inc.; a board member of Westfield on Weekends, Inc.; co-chair of the Noble Ball Auction Committee; and a corporator of the Westfield Athenaeum. She worked with Domus, Inc. to establish a community GED Program and served as executive director of the Westfield Business Improvement District (WBID) for its first five years. McMahon currently works as a financial planner for Merrill Lynch in Springfield.
John Davies has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. Davies is one of the most successful general agents in the MassMutual career agency system. He became a life member of the Million Dollar Round Table before the age of 30. After transferring from Los Angeles to the Springfield branch, Davies led the company’s nationwide career agency distribution system and achieved the highest sales results in the history of the company. Davies’ community service efforts spread coast to coast. They include membership and chairmanship of the Los Angeles Boy Scouts of America and the Los Angeles Life Underwriters Association. He has served on the Westfield State Board of Trustees and is currently a member of the Westfield State Foundation. He co-chaired the “Access to Excellence” campaign, Westfield State’s first capital campaign, which helped fund and build The Woodward Center. Davies currently works as a managing partner for JD Group, LLC. He was previously awarded an honorary doctor of philanthropy from Pepperdine University.
