PEA RIDGE — Dr. Roland Smith is as much a learner as a teacher, but many years ago - more years than some of the teachers he supervises have been alive - he realized he could affect more lives by being an administrator.

Smith, 73, began his career in education as a teacher in Illinois influenced in part because his mother was a teacher.

“I wanted to make a positive difference. I’ve had the opportunity to make presentations at the state, national and international levels,” he said, explaining his decision over the years to move up in the educational world.

One project he began while in retirement was writing a book, a project now on hold as he fulfills the role of interim superintendent in Pea Ridge.

“What’s most important is not Roland Smith, but to help others advance educationally,” he said, demurely.

He began teaching music, but has taught from elementary school to graduate school, held several administrative positions and received numerous honors. He has played the oboe and trumpet and currently sings with the Singing Men of Arkansas.

During his years teaching in Illinois, Smith spent summers teaching classes at the University of North Colorado. courses at the University of Arkansas and after his second retirement (the first in Arkansas), he was asked to apply to teach at the Grad school to teach leadership.

He initially retired from Illinois and moved to Arkansas. There, he returned to work and served as superintendent of schools in Rogers from 1993-1999. Again, he retired, only to be called to help found the College of Education at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.

Once again, he retired and thought “surely this the the end of a very exciting and rewarding career.” But, he wryly recalls, while in a grocery store in Tempe, Ariz., with family, he received a call from Ken James with the Arkansas Department of Education.

“The first thing I wondered was how did he get my cell phone number?”

Smith was asked to be the superintendent in Greenland.

“I decided ‘yes.’ It was a wonderful experience with the whole community and school coming together,” he said of the time in Greenland when the district avoided financial collapse.

“I was certain at that point I was going to retire and began working on writing a book on leadership. But, that is on hold again,” he said, as he was asked to come to Pea Ridge as interim superintendent after the depature of superintendent Mike Van Dyke.

“After consulting with my wife, I decided to come,” he said. “Hopefully, we can keep moving forward.”

Smith said he is impressed with Pea Ridge and the test scores.

He and his wife, Bernice, a retired kindergarten teacher, have four grown children (three of whom live in northwest Arkansas) and four grandchildren.

News, Pages 1 on 07/20/2011