Mr. Smith was born on July 5, 1920 in Groveton, Texas to Mr. and Mrs. A.E. Smith. In 1922, the
Smith family moved to Alief area. Douglas grew up as a farm boy and began school in the old three-story school building in the village of Alief, and graduated later in the same building that two years later was declared unsafe and torn down to make room for a new school in 1939.
When Douglas was 13 years old, he was hired and paid one dollar per day by Mr. Winkelman, the owner of the gin. Mr. Smith says that Mr. Winkelman “was like a second father” to him. Little did Mr.
Smith know at this time that one day he would be owner of this gin.
Mr. Smith also worked as a brick layer in the construction of the new Alief school building. One day while working on this building, he fell and later lost his vision in one of his eyes. After his accident,
Mr. Smith began work for the Houston Oil Company of Texas. Nine years later, in 1952, he started his own business of ginning cotton.
On October 24, 1941, Mr. Douglas Smith married Miss Ruby Lee Martin, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. A.J. Martin. Their children, Gary, Gene, and Mary Ann were born and raised in the Alief area. At one time, Mr. Smith moved his ginning operation to Sugar Land. His oldest son still operates their gin that is located in Needville.
Mr. Smith was elected to the Board of Education in 1958 and served 11 years. One of the first items discussed after his election was the proposal for the Southwest Freeway System which would connect rural Alief with Houston. In 1958, there were 8 teachers and only 6 grades of instruction. Student enrollment was approximately 250. The first financial need of the district involved securing a $25,000 loan from the Cameron State Bank, for the purpose of purchasing a school bus and building a cafetorium.
Plans were made to add one grade each year and in 1967, seventeen seniors graduated from Alief High
School. Another one of Mr. Smith’s contributions to Alief, during this time, wa to help in the efforts to hold free kindergarten in Alief and provide the first air-consitioning in an Alief school.
Mr. Smith was always interested in the continued development of students and helped organize the first little league program in the community as well as the addition of athletics in Alief schools. Mr. Smith presently lives in Alief and continues to keep an active interest in Alief schools.