Ed Smith, beloved Glen Cove band teacher, dies at 55

As longtime Landing Elementary School band teacher Ed Smith lay back in a chair in his Glen Cove living room on March 27, his family members took turns telling him how much they loved him. He had had trouble breathing all day, his younger daughter, Meghan, said, and they knew his time had come.

By 11:25 p.m., as the soft sounds of classical music played from a nearby speaker, he died, succumbing from the complications of the stroke he had suffered on June 27, 2018. Smith was 55.

Mere moments after he died, the music stopped. The speaker had died as well. “Quite literally, he took the music with him,” Meghan said. “It was unexplainable timing. It was amazing.”

Smith was born in April of 1964 in Glen Cove Hospital, the eldest of Patricia and George Smith’s three sons. He attended Glen Cove public schools all through his childhood and developed a love for music at a young age.

After graduating from Glen Cove High School in 1982, he spent some time studying at Nassau Community College before transferring to SUNY Oneonta to study music education, with a focus on clarinet. After graduating in 1986, he moved on to SUNY Binghamton, where he earned his master’s in the same field.

Smith returned home to Glen Cove in the late 1980s, beginning his work as a teacher in the Glen Cove School District, becoming the full-time band teacher at Landing in 1991. While his professional life was blossoming, something about which he had dreamed for years, it did not take long for his personal life to follow suit.

In October of 1992, Smith bumped into Elizabeth Donohue at Oyster Bay’s Oyster Festival. She had graduated from GCHS in 1984, so the two knew of each other but had never been formally acquainted.

They began speaking, and Elizabeth said she took note of how sweet and gentlemanly Smith was. Shortly afterwards, while working a nursing shift at Glen Cove Hospital, she received a dozen pastel roses from Smith with a card asking her to dinner. She accepted, and Elizabeth said those notions of chivalry and kindness remained consistent within him as they began dating. It was an easy decision, she said, to marry him in November, 1993.

The Smiths rented an apartment in Glen Cove before moving into a house in the city around the time they had their first daughter, Samantha, three years after they were married. Another three years later, Meghan was born.

Both Samantha and Meghan said their father was incredibly active in their lives, always taking them out into nature and spending as much time with them as possible.

“He was very engaged,” Samantha said. “I think part of that stems from having been a teacher for so long and having a certain learned patience for children.”

He also instilled his love for music within them, with Samantha becoming an accomplished pianist and Meghan doing the same with the clarinet. Samantha said music surrounded them growing up, making it a regular part of their lives.

“It was a norm in our household before we realized it was not a norm elsewhere,” she said.

“He was a natural musician,” Elizabeth said. “It came naturally for him, but he also worked at it and he wanted other people to have that appreciation and love for music.“

This innate ability to make children fall in love with music was not exclusive to his daughters, as those with whom Smith worked professionally said the same.

Karen Serani, a health and physical education teacher at Landing, worked with Smith for 26 years and said his students adored him. She said he taught thousands of students and treated them all with the same kindness and care, helping them develop a passion for music which they may have not had otherwise.

“I think Ed was a man who transformed their vision of what music is,” Serani said, “what it can be and how it can change their lives . . . Ed was an always upbeat person who found beauty and greatness in every aspect of his life.”

One of those students whose life was changed by Smith was David Maldonado. David’s mother, Lerida, said her son was initially not sure of whether he enjoyed playing his trombone, which he started in third grade. However, she said that the love and enthusiasm Smith showed to each student helped ignite David’s passion.

Now, as a sixth-grader, David plays with the seventh grade band, which Lerida said requires him to get to school earlier than normal. However, because he loves music so much, David said it is worth the trouble.

“My son just loves, loves to play and it’s thanks to Mr. Smith,” Lerida said. “If it wasn’t for him, he wouldn’t have as much love for his instrument.”

Smith was also an accomplished musician outside of the classroom, as he joined the Northwinds Symphonic Band in 2007 and quickly became its principal clarinetist.

Jodie Larson, the band director at Sea Cliff Elementary, is one of the band’s lead flutists. She said it was a privilege to play parallel to him.

“He was a leader,” Larson said. “He was so creative that it was just a pleasure to watch him play.”

Larson said she and Smith also worked together professionally. She would give him students to privately tutor in clarinet, and he would recommend students to do the same with her for the flute. Larson said she could not have imagined anyone better suited to help a child succeed in music than Smith.

“He would try to make a connection where he was able to reach deep into the soul of the student,” Larson said, “no matter what age or what level, and bring out the best in them. I think Ed was able to do that.”

As difficult as Smith’s death has been on his family, his wife, Elizabeth, said her husband’s burial arrangements have made it even harder. “One of the saddest things in the light of all this is we’re not allowed to have a funeral and services,” said. “There’s an emptiness in it.”

Elizabeth said the family plans on having a celebration of Smith’s life as soon as they are able.

On what they will miss most about their father, Samantha said it will be the quality time they spent together. Meghan said it will be the holding his strong yet delicate hands.

And on what she will miss most about her husband, Elizabeth simply said, “Everything.”