Brent Mutis, CapU Sport Information & Compliance Officer
By his count, Tom Smith has held more than 50 jobs in a storied working life but none was longer lasting or more personally meaningful than his post at Capilano University where, for 25 years, he was a gym attendant at the Centre for Sport and Wellness.
Smith recently retired from CapU but in reality hasn’t worked a shift in the CapU gym since COVID-19 shut down the facility in March of 2020. His work there began a quarter-century earlier and in that time, he saw countless memorable basketball, volleyball and soccer games and helped the Blues host dozens of sports events. His presence made an impact on many.
“I was hoping the day Tom retires would not come and we had to say goodbye,” said recently retired CapU Manager of Athletics and Recreation Milt Williams. “He touched the lives of so many students and has been working with us for so long that he became an institution. The department will never be able to fill his shoes and he will be missed. I wish Tom only the best in the future.”
Smith saw hundreds of athletes come to CapU, mature into adults and move on to life after University.
“That's what I enjoyed, just the contact with the athletes,” says Smith. “They were like my kids; I'd admonish them if I had to. I basically just took care of them. Being a former athlete, I could relate to them.”
A native of East Vancouver, Smith attended Templeton Secondary School along with former Blues manager of athletics Joe Iacobellis. He developed a reputation as a fierce competitor on the hoops hardwood and was captain of the team his senior year. Equipped with a wiry 6-foot-3, 150-pound frame, he was scouted by UBC and had a potential basketball future there but he also flourished putting colour to canvas and he opted to attend the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design).
Those studies would lead to his other life’s work. Smith was a featured artist at Bau-Xi Gallery on Granville Street for 30 years. He worked mostly in coloured pencil and acrylic paint and did a great deal of portrait work. He sold 52 pieces in his debut show at the gallery and never looked back. At one time, he was listed in the Who’s Who of Canada and was even recruited as an art instructor at UBC where he taught for two semesters.
Before he was earning money selling art and even after that took off, Smith held various jobs such as fixing train car brakes for CN Rail, installing Christmas lights at Vancouver’s Harbour Centre, being a security guard and driver, working as a DJ at an after-hours nightclub, and bartending at the PNE. Of all the side gigs, the CapU job – which started almost by accident – turned out to be the most permanent.
It was his high school background with Iacobellis that started it. The former Blues athletics boss asked Smith to fill in as evening attendant on a couple of occasions and then one night, seemingly all regular staff fell ill and there was no one else for Iacobellis to call.
“He throws me the keys and says, ‘Lock it up when you go home,’” recalls Smith. “And you had to lock every single door. I had this huge ring of keys… I spent the whole night wandering around figuring out what key went where.”
That was April 4, 1995 and was the first shift of a job that lasted through to March of 2020.
“It was my first real job since high school; most of my income had come from my artwork,” says Smith. “It was quite nice to get the job at Cap and get to go to the same place every night; it was a good ride.”
