JINNEY SMITH

1971 - 2021

JINNEY S. SMITH (Age 49)  
Jinney S. Smith, Ph.D., passed away on March 24, 2021, after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest. She was born in Seoul on May 3, 1971, and grew up on or near U.S. Army bases in South Korea, West Germany, and the Midwestern United States. She and her husband were high-school sweethearts and debate partners in Libertyville, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (B.A.), Northeastern University (M.A.), and Northwestern University (Ph.D. in political science). In summer 2020, Jinney became the Deputy Director for Statistical Operations at the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, leading her to observe that taking a new job is one of the only ways to meet new people during a pandemic, and they all have helpful name tags. Previously, she was the Associate Director of the Maryland Data Analysis Center, University of Maryland, College Park, where she directed criminal-justice research projects that made leading-edge use of administrative data. She was a gubernatorial appointee on Maryland's Juvenile Justice Reform Council. She taught political science and criminal justice as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and she was the founding director of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Program at the University of Maryland's Shady Grove campus. Jinney was fiercely self-confident but never self-important. She easily made friends who admired and benefited from her warmth, wisdom, humor, and sense of perspective. Without vying to be the center of attention, she was often the one who made the most perceptive or funniest remark. She was always looking forward to her next trip abroad. She kept in regular touch with family members, although they lived elsewhere, and was thrilled to have become an aunt in recent years. Jinney is survived by her parents, Ron and Su Smith, of Harker Heights, Texas; her husband of 26 years, Curtis Gannon, of Arlington; her brother, Frank Smith (Sarah), of Chicago, Illinois; her nephew, Maxwell; and her niece, Ella. There will be a private family ceremony at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Inner-City Scholarship Fund of the Catholic Schools Foundation, Inc., https://www.csfboston.org, or to a charity of your choice. Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at http://www.fmfh.com/obituaries.