Dr. Sheila Sylvia (Ferdinand) Smith

The life journey of Sheila Sylvia Ferdinand Smith began on December 20, 1932, in the County of St. Andrew, in Trinidad, which was—at the time—a possession of the “British Empire.”  She was the first child of thirteen, born to Thomas Alva and Elaine Delaney Ferdinand. 

Sheila started her educational journey at the Navet Presbyterian School.  When she was age seven, her parents moved to Rio Claro so that she could attend a Seventh-day Adventist church school.  Because the opening of a Seventh-day Adventist elementary school was still to occur, Sheila attended the Rio Claro Presbyterian School.  Early on, Sheila distinguished herself both as a student and as a sibling, mentor, and role model for her many younger siblings.

Wanting Sheila’s secondary education to be at a Seventh-day Adventist high school, and with such schooling not being available at home, Thomas and Elaine enrolled Sheila in the Adventist high school in the capital city, Port of Spain.  This required Sheila to leave Rio Claro and be away from her family and familiar surroundings.  She continued to shine in school, and was the first young woman in Trinidad to pass the definitive “Senior Cambridge Examination.”  Exam passage, after four years of intense academic preparation, indicated a student’s suitability for admission to highly regarded British Universities.  Sheila received high marks in all subjects upon taking the exam, after only three years of preparation and notwithstanding periodic trips home to check on and admonish the younger Ferdinands. 

Sheila began college and graduated with a first degree, an Associate of Arts degree, at the Caribbean Training College (now the University of the Southern Caribbean). After graduating, Sheila served as an employee of various church institutions including the South Caribbean Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists and the Caribbean Union, including in the office of the President of the Union.

Throughout these early years, Sheila maintained an active role in the church.  By age eight, she was elected as the Missionary Volunteer (Young People’s Ministry) Secretary for her church in Rio Claro.  She also served the Rio Claro Church later as Sabbath School Superintendent; a role she reprised in later years elsewhere.

In 1959, Sheila migrated to Toronto, Canada to reunite with the dynamic man—Neville Benjamin Smith—who, before he left Trinidad to pursue opportunity in Canada, had become her life-long significant other.  On August 18, 1959, she and Neville married in Toronto at the Pauline Street Seventh-day Adventist Church.  From this marriage—which lasted mere months shy of fifty years and ended only with Neville’s death—there were three children, thought wonderful (or at least sufficiently well-behaved) by their Mother: Keith Ulric, Nevilla Kathleen, and James Donald.

In a step as bold as their 1950s move from sunny Trinidad to frigid Canada, in January 1963, Sheila and Neville left Toronto with their three children for Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) in Huntsville, Alabama, where Shelia re-entered college and graduated with a bachelor’s degree.  Her next move was to Washington, D.C. where she was employed at the World Bank.  There, certain of the bank’s leaders, impressed by Sheila’s ability to convey information clearly and in an inspiring way, told her that—as much as they appreciated her contributions—it might serve her purposes to consider teaching as a career.  Acting in keeping with their suggestion, she applied to the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. to become a teacher at one of its prestigious convent schools for girls.  She received an assignment at the Academy of the Immaculate Conception.  From there, she started a position at Strayer Business College in Washington, D.C.  While at Strayer, Sheila continued her studies at the University of the District of Columbia, completing a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology.

In 1973, Sheila accompanied her family to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where husband Neville was appointed by the United States Agency for International Development and the State Department for a teaching assignment at an Ethiopian University.  Sheila obtained a position teaching at Ethiopia’s only business college.  While there, she led the task force which rewrote and installed a new business curriculum for the school.

On returning from Ethiopia, Sheila again was employed by an Archdiocese convent, the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute.  Her next appointment was to the Prince George’s County Public School System, where she retired after 19 years of dedicated and much-praised service.  During her years with Prince George’s system, Sheila obtained her doctorate degree in business education from the University of Maryland, College Park.  

Sheila and Neville moved to Florida in 1997, where they enjoyed their retirement years together, traveling widely. Before moving permanently to Florida, Sheila and her family were members of the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park, Maryland.  She served there as Sabbath School Superintendent, and then as one of the church’s first women elders. 

Along the way, newspapers sometimes caught wind of and reported on her accomplishments.  For example, in August 1973, an article in the Trinidad Guardian commented on her church activities: “The Metropolitan Seventh-day Adventist Church in Washington, D.C., which consists mainly of [a] West Indian [membership], broke away from tradition and recently elected a woman as one of the Local Elders.  Mrs. Sheila Smith from Trinidad is the first woman to hold such office in the Seventh-day Adventist Church Administration.”  Sheila’s service as an Elder at the Sligo Church followed not long after.           

While in Florida, Shelia kept active in church as much as her health and circumstances permitted.  Her church programs were always noteworthy for being innovative.  Even into her final years and months, she mentored and counseled young people at church—and wherever she encountered them—urging them to have and to pursue worthy aspirations.

Sheila was a diligent wife, mother, sister, aunt, friend, and teacher.  She will be missed greatly.  Those left to cherish her memory are her offspring: Dr. Keith Ulric and daughter-in-law Amithy, of Riverside, California; Nevilla Kathleen, R.N., BSN, of Laurel, Maryland; James Donald, Esq., of Wayzata, Minnesota; her adopted children, Catherine James and John Bell, and their son Jonathan Benjamin Bell (Sheila’s “grandson”).  Others who mourn her departure are her siblings: Vivian Ferdinand and sister-in-law Iris; Justice Urich Ferdinand; Ericson Ferdinand and sister-in-law Barbara; Rosalind and brother-in-law Arthur; Ellen Ferdinand; Eileen Sandy and brother-in-law Dr. Cleve; Dr. Leslie Ferdinand and sister-in-law Mary Janet; JaneAnn Pascall and brother-in-law Ellis; Ruby Ferdinand; Pearl Prime; Kenneth Ferdinand; Dr. Carl Ferdinand and sister-in-law Quintilla.  Sheila also leaves behind close and long-time friends as siblings—Ornan and Shirley Bailey and their children (Sheila’s nephew and niece), Drs. Trevor and Sharlene Bailey; Pastor G. Ralph Thompson; Mr. Rawle and Mrs. Glenda Roberts (beloved neighbors, who checked on Sheila’s welfare daily); sister-in-law Iva Saunders; and sister-in-law Olga Cudjoe.  Sheila also is survived by a large host of nieces and nephews and a host of other cherished relatives and friends.

Sheila’s hope is that she will see her Savior face-to-face, far beyond the starry sky, and that face-to-face in all His glory, she will see Him by and by.   

A funeral service will be held Sunday, May 31, 2020 at Fuller Funeral Home, 1625 Pine Ridge Road, Naples. Burial will follow at Palm Royale Cemetery.