EDGEWOOD, Md. — A fixture outside Deerfield Elementary School, ‘Mr. Harry’ has served as both guardian and protector as students cross Willoughby Beach Road.
“I drive past on my bus and I see him caring for the kids,” said 9-year-old Kaliyah McKinney, “I see him making cars stop so the kids can walk through.”
“This is the youngest of three and he’s been here the whole time,” Kaliyah’s mother, Collean, added, “The oldest is going to be a senior next year.”
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Like a rite of passage, this is a special day.
“The children all know that at the end of the school year, he has a candy bag for all the walkers,” said Belinda Smith, Mr. Harry’s wife of 56 years.
And at the age of 79, this also represents Mr. Harry’s final day watching over them, and he’s leaving with a spotless record.
“You gotta watch anything, but we do not control the traffic,” said Mr. Harry (aka Harry Smith, Jr.), “We are concerned more so with the kids, and so far, as long as I’ve been here at Deerfield, no kids was hit, you know? So that’s the good part.”
About two decades ago, Harry retired from the U.S. Postal Service in Baltimore after a long career of some four decades, but he wasn’t done yet and his wife says the schoolchildren made his work far more than just a part-time job.
“He really takes a personal interest in them,” said Smith, “because he knows today a lot of single parents or parental wives have to work today so he makes sure they look nice; their faces are washed; hair’s combed to give them that little parental guidance.”
And after sharing so much love, it’s not easy to say goodbye.
“I do feel that, because they’ll come up and hug me and one little girl---she didn’t want me to leave,” said Smith as he walked one of his final groups of students across the busy road.
