Playground to honor legacy

Blue plastic slides, metal swings and the faces of smiling children will keep Courtland Smith’s memory alive for years to come.

On Saturday, members of UNC’s chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity dedicated the Courtland Benjamin Smith Playground at Phoenix Place in honor of their former fraternity president.

The fraternity brothers and their families raised $125,000 for the memorial. The money also funded a Habitat for Humanity home built in the nearby neighborhood and completed last May.

Smith, who was a junior biology major, died when he was shot by police outside Greensboro in August 2009. The police responded to a 911 call from Smith, who was intoxicated and told the dispatcher he was suicidal and needed help.

The playground dedication ceremony drew a large crowd of Smith’s fraternity brothers and their families. Local homeowners, members and volunteers from Habitat for Humanity of Orange County and local children also attended.

Smith’s parents, Susan and Pharr Smith, traveled from Texas for the dedication.

Smith’s father said Phoenix Place is the perfect setting for the playground because it reminds him of a phoenix emerging from the ashes.

“There’s really no better way for us to remember Courtland than in this place,” he said.

He joked that the project was ironic in that it involved construction, saying his son “didn’t know which end of the hammer to hold.”

“I was somewhat amused that his memorial was going to be a construction project because, to put it kindly, he was not particularly mechanically inclined,” Pharr Smith said.

“But a playground? Now that’s what Courtland was really like.”

Susan Smith cut the ribbon to officially open the playground, and friends and families reflected on Courtland Smith’s life.

Davis Willingham, a friend of Smith’s and the current DKE president, said Smith’s dream of becoming a pediatric cardiologist and his job as a summer counselor at Camp Mondamin aligned with a vision of reaching out to the community.

Through the playground, he said the fraternity was looking to extend that vision.

“We’re just excited to do this for Courtland because he loved working with children, and this is just something he would be excited about,” Willingham said.

“If he wouldn’t be pushing a girl on the swing now, he’d probably be in the swing himself.”

The fraternity began raising funds in October 2009, two months after Smith’s death, and had the necessary funds for the projects one year later.

Willingham said the money came from a variety of sources and included a contribution of $30,000 from Bank of America in December 2009. Family members of the fraternity brothers also provided monetary support, and a charity golf tournament raised $15,000.

Keshawn Morrow, a fourth-grader living in the nearby neighborhood, said he asked his mom many times when the playground would be finished. Now, he said he and his friends have a place to play.

“I think it’s great because if it wasn’t for Habitat for Humanity building the playground then we would be in a house with nothing to do,” he said.

Keshawn’s mother, Romona, said she is grateful to the fraternity and Habitat for Humanity for giving neighborhood children a chance to get to know each other.

“We probably can’t thank them enough,” she said.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.