Alumni Spotlight: Deputy Fire Chief Jamie E. Smith Sr. ’04

It’s not easy to become a firefighter.

The application process includes a written exam and a grueling physical test performed while wearing 50 pounds of gear. In St. Paul, candidates have to be EMT- or paramedic-certified before they are eligible for hire. Hiring periods open only every few years, and prospective firefighters can spend years on the eligible hiring list.

Despite a perfect score on his entrance tests, it took three years and five separate panel interviews before Jamie E. Smith Sr. ’04 got a job offer from the Saint Paul Fire Department in 2013. He was starting over mid-career in a field that is mentally challenging and inherently dangerous, making one-third what he earned as a real estate agent.

But Smith knew how to work hard in pursuit of a meaningful goal. Six years and three months later, he was promoted to captain—one of the fastest advancements in department history. Today, as deputy chief, he holds the third-highest rank in Minnesota’s largest fire department and serves as the SPFD’s fire marshal and public information officer.

“It was speaking to me,” he says of his decision to join the department in 2013. “I became a firefighter to make a difference in my community.”

Smith spent his early life in South Minneapolis and St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood before moving to the suburban east metro as a teenager, where he was frequently one of the only Black students in class or on a team. The contrast between his childhood in the city and his new surroundings was stark. “I looked around at people who had more financial stability than I had ever experienced,” he says. “I wanted to know, what’s the common denominator? How do I get there?”

The difference, he decided, was a college degree. Smith looked to sports as a financial pathway to higher education, joining Augsburg’s football team as a running back and later switching to wide receiver. (“The best decision I ever made,” he jokes, “since I graduated high school at 155 pounds.”) As an athlete, Smith intended to pursue physical therapy as a major and a career path, but anxiety about his ability to manage the required science coursework crept in. “I was passionate about it, but I let my insecurities and self-doubt get in the way,” he says.

Instead of physical therapy, Smith declared a major in history education. Throughout college, he coached basketball, track, and football at a local middle school. He had an affinity for the job; he liked working with young people, he was good at it, and the school had a permanent position lined up for him after graduation.

But when Smith became a father during his junior year at Augsburg, he worried about how he would support a family on a teacher’s salary. Out of a long list of alternatives generated by a career aptitude test, “real estate” stood out to him, despite his lack of sales experience. Remembering how it felt to give up his interest in physical therapy, Smith decided he wanted to bet on himself this time. He graduated and took a job with Keller Williams Realty. His mentor in the business told him, “It’s not going to be easy, but I can show you how to do this job. I can teach you if you listen.”

It was a frightening leap of faith. In his first six months as a real estate agent, Smith sold “maybe four houses.” He was 21 and had a baby at home, and the job was 100% commission-based, meaning no salary and no safety net.

His mentor turned out to be right on both counts. It wasn’t easy, but Smith hustled, set goals, developed consistency and daily routines, and learned how to deal with failure and keep going. His hard work paid off: The next year, he made six figures. Yet, Smith found himself deflecting criticism from friends and family who questioned his choices.

“People said I wasted my college education, taking on debt for a history degree—absolutely not! It’s not just what you learn in the classroom. It’s the lessons about how to respond to self-doubt and challenges when life gets in the way. At Augsburg, I learned how to buckle down to get things done correctly and on a deadline. That directly translated to success in real estate,” he says.

The degree itself mattered, too. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, it devastated the mortgage lending industry. Overnight, Smith’s income was cut in half, “despite working twice as hard.” To make ends meet, he worked a variety of jobs, including managing the food department at a SuperTarget and selling legal products for Thomson Reuters—all of which required a bachelor’s degree.

When the housing market started to recover, a return to real estate seemed obvious. At the same time, Smith’s father and uncle, both St. Paul firefighters, were encouraging him to think about joining their profession. Having witnessed their struggles as Black men hired in the 1970s, he had previously refused to consider firefighting for himself. But his uncle in particular wouldn’t let it rest, telling Smith, “The pride you will have riding in that truck is something you can’t get anywhere else.”

This time, something clicked. “By then, I recognized that money can come and go,” Smith says. “I went into firefighting for the pride and fulfillment that public service brings—something that chasing money simply did not.”

He left real estate to learn the family business. It turned out that he loved being a firefighter—and that his Augsburg degree made a difference. While a degree isn’t a prerequisite to become a firefighter, it is required to advance in leadership. When opportunities for promotion came along (first to captain, and five years later, to deputy chief) Smith was both prepared and qualified.

He’s also still relying on the liberal arts education he received at Augsburg, from critical thinking to public speaking. As fire marshal, he oversees teams tasked with public education, fire investigations, and code inspection and enforcement. As public information officer, he serves as the department spokesperson and media liaison, handling communications, speechwriting, and public events. There’s no such thing as a typical day. Beyond responding to fires, SPFD handles emergency medical care, technical rescues, structural collapses, ice water rescues, and much more. Smith is always on-call for major emergencies.

“Firefighters get into this job to do the work,” he says. “We’re all adrenalin junkies who get a rush from being in the middle of the action where there are real stakes. My current role still fulfills that need for excitement, whether it’s being on camera or being the public face during an emergency situation.”

Most of all, being in leadership amplifies the impact he’s able to make on the community that his parents and grandparents came from and still call home. It’s not always easy, but he’s willing to put in the effort.

“Get up and do the daily stuff,” he says. “That’s what I’ve learned. As a father to three sons, I tell them life isn’t about how hard you can hit or avoiding challenges. It’s about getting back up. We all want the easy way out, but success is not found there.”

---

Top image: Deputy Fire Chief Jamie E. Smith Sr. ’04 is a member of the Saint Paul Fire Department. (Photo by Courtney Perry)