Randolph Smith promises new path forward at senior center
A week into his appointment as Cape Henlopen Senior Center executive board President, Randolph Smith said things have been chaotic.
There’s a lot of information to grasp, Smith said last month from an office in the senior center located in Rehoboth Beach.
“It’s taken a couple of days, and there are still issues I’m trying to wrap my head around, but we’re going to work through them in a positive way,” he said.
Some positive news is what the senior center needs.
Smith, and 10 other center members, were elected to the board Feb. 10 after the board’s previous 11 members resigned as part of an agreement with the state so the center would receive a quarterly grant-in-aid check worth $53,000. The state was withholding the check because the board had spent the better part of 2014 fighting with center members and been scolded publicly by state and county officials for not following center by-laws to conduct business.
“My intention is to move the center forward with a more positive image,” he said.
Smith, a charismatic 63-year-old who talks a mile a minute, has been a center member for three years. He said he’s prepared for the work associated with helping run the senior center and because he’s retired, he’s got the time to spend on issues that may come up during his tenure.
“I like people and it’s for the good of the community,” he said.
Smith grew up in Baltimore, Md., has a degree from the University of Maryland, and spent much of his adult life in Chevy Chase, Md., working as a marketing distributor for Procter & Gamble’s cosmetics lines.
“I had a career making women pretty,” he said laughing.
Smith retired to Rehoboth 13 years ago, but he had been coming to the small resort town for 30 years before that.
“I love the small-town mentality here. There are a lot of positive things,” he said.
Smith said he plans on taking the corporate structure he learned during his career at Procter & Gamble and applying it to the senior center.
This is going to be a transparent and innovative process, he said.
“Seeing things with a new set of eyes and bringing some freshness is a good thing,” Smith said.
This isn’t the first time Smith has involved himself in his community. While in Chevy Chase, he was an active member of the Shrine of Most Blessed Sacrament, helping with the parish retreat, catechism classes and the women’s retreat. At Procter & Gamble, Smith worked on several committees to help promote the health and well-being of the more than 3,000 employees who worked at the location. He’s also a Knights of Columbus past grand knight of the Msgr. Francis Desmond Council 13348 of St. Jude the Apostle Catholic Church in Lewes.
“I’ve been blessed to have a lot,” he said of friends, family, wealth and religion. “Somebody helped me along the way, and I’m willing to take on this challenge.”
Smith’s first course of action as president was to announce a number of changes, including the posting of head shots and biographical information of the members on the center’s bulletin board, creation of new committees to help with the center’s finances, trips, fundraising, kitchen and other activities, and a list of board meeting dates throughout the year.
Smith’s second course of action was to address all the center’s members. There’s a letter from Smith to all the members in the center’s March and April newsletter. He recognizes there will be challenges, but, he writes, they will be also resolved in a positive manner.
“Now is a time for healing with a fresh start, new enlightenment, new beginnings and for the continued enjoyment, excitement, happiness and camaraderie that the CHSC was once famous for,” he wrote.
Smith said his neighbor asked why he was getting involved with a senior center board that has had nothing but bad press over the past year.
“Somebody needs to get involved, and if everybody felt like you, nothing would change,” Smith said. “I’m a man about getting things done, with the help of others.”
