Mary Smith vividly remembers one of her final conversations with her late son, Eric.
They were in the kitchen just a couple months before he graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia. Eric, a business school student, already had a job lined up at Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor.
“He said, ‘Mom, I just have this feeling like I’m going to go places and do great things,'” Smith recalled. “I told him I wholeheartedly agreed. And never in my wildest dreams did I ever think it would be organ, bone and tissue donation.”
Eric Smith was killed in a car crash on June 12, 2011 – exactly one month after he graduated when driving home from the Jersey Shore.
His organs saved the lives of four people, including one woman who has since become a close friend of his mother. His corneas have enabled two others to see. And his bone and tissue gifts resulted in 67 gifts across 23 states, helping at least 29 recipients between the ages of 13 to 71.
In the months following Smith’s death, Temple’s Gamma Iota Sigma, an academic fraternity of risk management and insurance students, honored Smith, a former member, by selecting Gift of Life as the recipient of its annual fundraiser
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