Jerry Smith’s life in publishing has touched nearly every corner – newspapers, yearbooks, public relations, radio and, of course, printing – without ever straying from his adopted hometown.

Now he’s in the business of giving back – as executive director of the DeKalb County Community Foundation, which grants more than $750,000 annually to local non-profit agencies.

“One of the joys I’ve had over the years since I got out of school,” said Smith, who worked for Castle-PrinTech for three decades and served as its president for the last 16 of those years, “is that I never left DeKalb.”

His devotion to the Barb City – interrupted only by a two-year military tour of Germany in 1967 and 1968 – keeps him near his alma mater and the Northern Star, serving on the alumni board and allowing him to meet scores of students who’ve passed through its pages.

The Dixon native arrived at NIU in 1961, working for the Star “on and off” until his graduation in 1966. During those years, though, the campus journalists were multi-taskers before the word existed.

“The newspaper and the yearbook and the radio station were all housed in the same building, Kishwaukee Hall,” said Smith, who also logged time in NIU Sports Information. “My recollection was doing a little work for the Star, then going to the yearbook, the Norther – I was sports editor for the yearbook – and then doing a little for the radio, WNIC.”

Smith was hired in 1969 as editor of the daily DeKalb County Journal. It lasted only a couple of years – the Journal was sold – but Smith remained with the company by moving onto the printing side.

“One of Castle’s major focuses over the years was doing newspaper-oriented printing – television booklets, that kind of stuff,” he said. “I was calling on newspapers for many, many years.”

He became Castle’s president in 1983, spearheading company growth and national recognition as a leading provider of newspaper inserts and advertising material. His 1999 retirement came when he “really wanted to do something different.”

Hall of Fame recognition joins other recent honors, including the president’s award from the NIU Foundation and the Donald R. Grubb Journalism Alum of the Year award.

Smith and his wife, Ging, are parents to Eric. All three hold NIU degrees.