Diann DeWeese Smith

Diann DeWeese Smith, 84, died November 10, 2011 after a battle with Alzheimer's disease. Ms. Smith began her career with Scott Foresman in the late 1960s, where she became a prize-winning editor. She founded the YWCA Loop Center and served as its executive director from 1969-1977. At the YWCA she led an organization that fought rape and domestic violence, established child support collection services, and organized professional women to donate psychological counseling and legal services. Groups like Chicago Gray Panthers and Women Employed were developed under their roof, and many others were housed.

Later Ms. Smith was director of communications and development for Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center in Chicago from 1982-85, and vice president for communications and development at the center from 1985-1991. In 1991, Ms. Smith then became executive director of the Foundation for Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation.

Ms. Smith had a number of career honors including the 1990 Gladys G. Shute Award by Oakton Community College for significant contribution to the advancement of women. She received the 1991 Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights Award and the 1990 YWCA Metropolitan Chicago Community Service Award. She was featured in a May 1985 Chicago magazine article, "When Women Mean Business."

An organizer for the Chicago Foundation for Women, she also served on their board. She served on advisory boards or the board of directors for the Day Care Crisis Council, Chicago Now, the Negro College Fund, the Contemporary Art Museum, Women's Action Alliance, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, and the Illinois Prisons and Jails Project. Ms. Smith was a producer/moderator for "Relating to Women" on WFYR radio. She also helped create The Chicago Network, which gathered the city's powerful and high-ranking women.

Ms. Smith grew up in Indiana and earned a BA in English from Beloit College (Beloit, Wisc.) in 1948 where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. At Beloit, she was active in student government and athletics.

Visit the Chicago Tribune's editorial obituary.

Courtesy of Beloit College