EDITOR’S NOTE: It takes many people to keep a community like East Peoria running smoothly. We think you should know who some of those people are and what they do. This is the first in a regular series we will publish about the people — some highly visible, others behind the scenes, most of them our neighbors and friends — who work hard every day to make this a great place to live. If you would like to suggest an individual for this series, call 309-681-4418 or email [email protected].

Dean Smith rose from his comfortable living room chair and disappeared around the corner. He re-emerged a few minutes later carrying two rolled pieces of heavy paper. Carefully unrolling one, he revealed a weathered photo of the USS Bunker Hill, the aircraft carrier he served on in the Pacific during World War II. The other was APA 101, the cargo vessel where he was later assigned. He also served on a destroyer in the Atlantic at the end of his stint in the Navy.

The 99-year-old veteran is justifiably proud of his service. It took him to parts of the world he might never have seen. But the pull of central Illinois brought him back to live a rich, full life in and around East Peoria. His humble service and commitment to the community was recognized by the East Peoria Chamber of Commerce in January with the 2025 Citizen of the Year Award.

“I had no idea I was being honored,” Dean said with a smile. “I couldn’t believe it.”

His son, Forest, and daughter, Janice Cunningnam, learned of the award but did not immediately tell their father. Instead, they schemed to get him to attend the Chamber’s annual dinner, even though it was not something he would normally do.

Dean said, “Janice and Forest wanted me to go. I said, well, I don’t know, it’s darn cold out and I’ve never been to one of them before.”

After the award was announced many other family members and friends emerged to congratulate and celebrate with him. Like many who have had an outsized impact in their community, Dean said he was surprised and humbled by the recognition.

That ballroom at the Par-A-Dice Hotel was a long way from the farm outside of Loraine, Illinois, where Dean was born on March 9, 1927. On the day he arrived in the world the roads were nearly impassible with spring mud. There was no telephone, so his father hitched up a wagon and went into town to fetch the doctor. Dean joined two older siblings and later became the third of four children in the Smith clan.

The Smith family farm had no electricity or running water, but Dean said they all worked to make a living raising corn, wheat, and a few dairy cows. He remembers picking corn by hand and taking care of other farm chores.

When the Great Depression came to that part of western Illinois, his father was forced to sell the farm and the family moved into town. When his father found a job with the Work Progress Administration, they moved to a house with electricity and were able to afford the “luxury” of a radio. Later, Dean would deliver the Chicago Daily News and use the money he earned to buy a new bicycle for the princely sum of $18.00.

Dean attended school in Loraine through his third year of high school. It was then that his father took a job at the LeTourneau manufacturing plant in Peoria. He finished school at Woodruff High School, which had just opened in 1937.

It was in the halls of Woodruff that Dean met Rae Marie, the young woman who would become his wife in 1947.

But before he committed himself to a lifelong partner, young Dean Smith answered his country’s call to service and joined the Navy. It was near the tail end of World War II, so he said he never saw combat, but he was trained to load powder in the five-inch guns on the USS Bunker Hill.

When he returned home, Dean took a job at the old Caterpillar headquarters in East Peoria (located approximately where the Fondulac Library now stands) and tied the knot with Rae Marie. They were both 20 years old. After six years in Washington, they built the first of their two homes in East Peoria. As Dean grew his career at Caterpillar at the East Peoria, Mossville, and Morton facilities, he and Rae Marie raised two children: Janice lives in East Peoria and Forest lives in Germantown Hills.

Dean exemplifies the old saying, “You can’t keep a good man down.” He officially retired from Caterpillar in 1983 at age 57. It turned out to be the first of three “retirements.” He kept getting called back for special assignments where his skills and experience were highly valued.

While negotiating one of his post-retirement assignments, he said he agreed to all of the terms except he had to have Mondays off to play golf. For one of the others, he insisted that he have the first three months of the year off so he and Rae Marie could escape to Florida, as they had grown accustomed to doing.

While Dean and his wife enjoyed his retirement years, they ended up being some of his most productive in terms of giving back to the community. He was a valued volunteer for the Festival of Lights for more than 25 years, the East Peoria Food Pantry for 20 years and has been an active member of the First United Methodist Church for more than 50 years.

Those and other contributions culminated in the Citizen of the Year Award, which is engraved with words recognizing him “For your dedication and spirit.”

Dean gets emotional when he speaks of the loss of his wife in 2020. She suffered a debilitating stroke in 2017. Dean and other family members visited her every day at a nursing facility in East Peoria, until COVID locked everything down in 2020. She passed that year after 73 years of marriage.

“It was a terrible time for families,” Dean said.

With the help and support of family, neighbors, and friends, he still lives independently in the home he designed and built 34 years ago. Before a minor setback due to arthritis in one leg, he drove to Eastside Centre to work out two or three times a week. Dean’s days are slower now, but they continue to be filled with people and memories from a long and rewarding life.

The inevitable question for a 99-year-old: “To what do you attribute your longevity?” Dean is quick to answer: “I’ve always been kind of good about going to the doctor, and I go to the dentist every six months. I just try to take care of myself.“

He said he pays attention when his body is telling him something and always seeks a professional opinion.

When the doctor told him his gall bladder was enlarged, he said, “Let’s take it out.” There have been other health issues over the years, but to this day he takes only one daily medication. A stent in his heart has been doing its job since 1998.

Daughter Janice had the last word on what she believes has helped her father live such a long, healthy, and productive life: “Family and lots of love.”

Clearly, he has had plenty of both.