‘The American Dream Is Real’: Chehalis School District Dedicates Orin C. Smith Elementary and Shaw Learning Campus

The Chehalis School District dedicated the second of its two new elementary schools on Wednesday, calling the Orin C. Smith Elementary School an example of the local support that has buoyed education in the community for generations.

The school’s namesake was a Chehalis graduate who went on to serve as a key leader at Starbucks during its rise to global success.

Signs on the wall inside the new school show a photo of Orin Smith, smiling over a mug of coffee, with his life story and a quote aimed at the students walking by: “Set your goals high and always do your very best.”

J. Vander Stoep, who has been a liaison between the school district, community and the Smith family, spoke during the dedication ceremony and said that Orin Smith’s success after a difficult early life should inspire the students attending his namesake school. 

“Orin Smith’s story is proof that the American dream is real,” Vander Stoep said. 

He noted that, if Orin Smith were attending school today, he would qualify for free or reduced lunch. He and his siblings, coming from a low-income, single-parent home, would also be considered “at-risk.”

“That’s where he started,” Vander Stoep said.

When mentors told him he should go to college, Smith later said that idea was so beyond his conception that he felt they might as well have told him he should go to the moon. 

And yet, he attended Centralia College, the University of Washington and Harvard Business School, then went on to help lead Starbucks while it grew from 45 stores in Seattle alone to 10,000 stores worldwide. He also was lead director at Disney and a leader at Nike and the University of Washington.

Orin Smith, Vander Stoep said, lived out two halves of the American Dream: first, that anyone, regardless of background, has the freedom to chart their own path and can achieve success through hard work; and second, that even great heights can only be attained through the help of generations before you, and that you now have a duty to give back. 

Surpassing the Vision

Orin C. Smith Elementary opened last spring, but was formally dedicated in a ceremony that came almost a year to the day after the ribbon-cutting for its next-door-neighbor, James W. Lintott Elementary.

Both buildings share a similar U-shaped floor plan and red schoolhouse look, and both sit on a 43-acre parcel of land along 20th Street donated to the district by the family of Gail and Carolyn Shaw, longtime community benefactors.

A ceremony on Wednesday also formally dedicated the Shaw Learning Campus. 

Catherine Shaw, speaking on behalf of her late parents, said they would have been thrilled to see what became of the land they had owned for decades and called Chehalis Homes. (The children also called it Legend Oaks, after the beautiful groves of oaks visible in the distance.)

Her parents would have been even more pleased to see how the community they loved came together to support and make the educational campus a reality, she said. 

“As I look around here today, I know my dad’s vision for this property has been surpassed, and I thank this extraordinary community for making it happen,” Catherine Shaw said, her voice choked with emotion, as an American flag flapped above in the sweltering sunshine and a crowd of several hundred attendees rose in a standing ovation.  

‘He Always Wanted to Give Back’

Orin Smith died of pancreatic cancer on March 1, 2018. Smith knew before he died that the school would bear his name, and he was honored by it, said his youngest brother, Kevin, who attended the ceremony along with a sister.

“He loved growing up in Chehalis. He never forgot his roots. He always wanted to give back. To have a school named after him in honor of his efforts is particularly rewarding,” Kevin Smith told The Chronicle. 

He noted that his brother was especially pleased to be associated with James Lintott and the Shaws.

“Gail and Carolyn Shaw were mentors like no other,” Kevin Smith said. “I think there wasn’t a day that went by in Gail Shaw’s 60-plus years here where he didn’t wake up and ask what he could do to help his community.” 

Don Rash, principal of Olympic Elementary School from 1989 to 2003, said the pair of new schools show the support Chehalis has for its students.

“Olympic was and is a great school. That being said, these two new schools are just about world class,” Rash said. “They’ll take care of the needs of the teachers and students for many years to come.”

Riding the Strawberry Bus

Chehalis graduate Lowell Wood attended the ceremony from his home in Florida, eager to honor his best friend, Orin Smith, whom he had known since age 10.

He and Orin used to ride the “strawberry bus,” getting up at 4 a.m. and riding up to Newaukum Hill with other town kids to pick berries all day at the Guthrie Strawberry Farm just outside Napavine. 

“He and I used to have contests going up and down the rows, skinning our knees and so forth. We had a great time,” Wood said. “We were kids and strong and didn’t know any better. We loved it.”

In 1950 he and Orin each earned $250 over the summer, which was enough for them to buy what they needed for the school year. 

Vander Stoep echoed that theme, saying that the rags-to-riches story of Orin Smith should inspire every student and the school to know that they can achieve anything. 

“I want to say to the students who are here, who are going to start next week in either one of these schools: For the rest of your life, people may say to you, you can’t make it. They may say you don’t come from an important family, or maybe they say you’re just from a small town and you can’t make it. For the rest of your life you have an answer.”

Vander Stoep paused and pointed to the new school.

“You can say, ‘that’s not true. I went to Orin Smith Elementary School, and he grew up in Chehalis just like me. And he came from the same kind of family and had the same kind of growing up that I had. And he made it, and I can make it. You’re not going to stand in my way. I can rise to the top, just like he did.’ ”

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Brian Mittge has written for The Chronicle since 2000. He can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com. Full disclosure: His three children are students in the Chehalis public school system.