Shawn Smith, a homeless man killed by a hit-and-run driver, was a drummer and a dreamer, a substitute teacher who held a job through the toughest times and never lost his sense of humor, his daughter said Monday.
Smith, who turned 50 weeks before he was killed early Saturday morning, was camping near 20th and Central streets when a silver 2003 Buick Regal jumped the curb, hitting him and two others. The driver fled.
Smith, who was sleeping when he was hit, was killed. His companions were injured.
The car was totaled in the accident. It was reported stolen from Sheridan, said Detective John White, a Denver police spokesman. Police continue to investigate, he said.
Smith worked as a substitute music teacher for Denver Public Schools from 2000 to 2002 and then again from 2007 through this year, most frequently at Bryant-Webster K-8 in northwest Denver, said DPS spokesman Michael Vaughn.
Smith taught for many years in Jefferson County schools and taught privately, as well, said his daughter Brittni Smith, 22. She said he “played just about every instrument” but that he was happiest playing drums.
He played drums professionally with the Mood Express, the Sean Owens Band and Daniel Stratman.
“He loved all types of music. Anything he could beat his ‘air drums’ to and classical, Mozart” and others, she said.
Shawn Smith took the death of his mother in the early ’90s and his subsequent divorce hard and began drinking heavily.
“He would be sober for five months at a time or more, but then he would fall back down again,” Brittni Smith said. “I know that once he became homeless, this escalated.”
Layoffs and the financial instability attached to substitute teaching forced him into debt, and eventually he lost his home, Brittni Smith said.
In 2006, she took him to the Denver Rescue Mission.
“He would get some money saved up because he always worked the entire time either substitute teaching or doing landscaping for friends,” she said.
He tried to make it on his own but kept “falling back into a new shelter or the streets for a night or two. By October of 2008, he was able to stay in an apartment for a longer amount of time but then lost his way again,” she said.
Brittni Smith, a seventh-grade literacy teacher in Aurora Public Schools, credits her father with guiding her to that career path.
“I used to go to Take Your Child to Work Day with him when I was in elementary school and watch him perform in the classroom. It was so natural for him to entertain, mesmerize and teach,” she said. “I got my self-confidence and sense of humor and compassion from him, which are all imperative qualities to have as a teacher. He was just so loving and always tried his best to make me happy.”
Smith is also survived by a 10-year-old daughter, Ariel.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
