“The journey began at Howard,” said Kenneth Smith (B.S. ’75) during the Reunion Luncheon on May 9, held as a part of Howard’s Golden Reunion Weekend activities. While the journey was of course one of academic exploration and excellence for the chemistry major, it was also one of finding love for Smith and his wife Dr. Gerri Cannon-Smith (B.S., ’75) — thanks to a hotplate. 

It must have been fate. Cannon-Smith's friends in the Meridian Hill dormitory, Eddie and Reggie, had borrowed her hotplate, and a handsome young man had offered to return it. 

“I get this knock on the door and this person comes up and says, ‘I’m returning your hotplate’” said Dr. Cannon-Smith. 

“I said, 'thank you,'” she recalled, though her husband remembers it slightly differently.

“She closed the door!” Smith said, laughing. He was, admittedly, taken aback by her beauty. 

“I just stood there looking, he said. “I saw a very beautiful young woman.”

He knew he had to figure out a way to see her again, and so he went back to his friends and begged them to help him make his way back to her door. 

“I don’t care what you do, you gotta get me back there!” he said, laughing again. “And they did.” 

The friends borrowed the hotplate for a second time, and Smith didn’t waste the opportunity. This time, he was prepared. He returned it and struck up a conversation with the young woman who made such a lasting impression on him in mere moments. 

Of course, there was “much more to it,” but the chance October meeting between the two freshmen — both from Mississippi — was the beginning of a Howard University love story that would result in the couple's 1976 marriage, the year after their graduation from Howard.

Dr. Cannon-Smith was a pre-med zoology major. She and Smith had a few classes together, like comparative anatomy, and had otherwise seen each other on campus. But if it was love at first sight for her, she certainly did not want it to be obvious. 

“I’d seen him around and thought he was cute, but I wasn’t interested in approaching at that time,” she said.

Something about the magic of the hotplate seemed to change all that, however. The two dated for the rest of their academic career, though both admitted they went through the ups and downs of any other couple. 

“Oh, breakups happened for sure,” laughed Dr. Cannon-Smith.

The couple, who will also celebrate 50 years of marriage next year, would go on to have successful careers in medicine (Dr. Cannon-Smith was awarded the Alton B. Cobb Lifetime Achievement Award by the Mississippi Public Health Association earlier this year, for example) and engineering, and become the parents to two daughters. Their youngest would follow in her parent’s footsteps, also attending Howard University and Howard Law School, while her sister went to Clark Atlanta University and the University of Texas. 

When asked what it meant to be back on The Yard, where their journey began, both expressed happiness and gratitude.

Though Smith wasn’t “on fire” about attending the weekend’s events due to the engineer’s still heavy workload, the trip to DC has proved worth it so far. In addition to their Howard reunion, the pair had the opportunity to see their first grandchild. He has especially enjoyed getting to connect with members of his class and beyond. 

“I’ve really enjoyed seeing different people — these are not the same teenagers, early-twenties people!” he said with a laugh. “Time marches on. To just talk to them, and hear their stories is fascinating, and it all started here.” 

"Our family started here."

“It’s incredible,” added Dr. Cannon-Smith. “50 years ago, it’s hard to even look forward to see this day, but looking back, we see the foundation that was laid in terms of the historical context, cultural legacy, and the legacy continuing, which is so important as well. And of course, our family started here.”

During the luncheon, alumni from the class of 1975 “passed the torch” to the class of 2025, represented by the 64th Howard University Student Association Executive President Jay Jones. When asked for words of advice for Jones and her classmates, Dr. Cannon-Smith said to “strive for excellence,” and never “accept complacency,” noting that the community must also use its “legacy of resources” to help make opportunities for others. 

“I think that’s even more important in this particular era," she said. "We’ve been in this position before and one of the things we need to do is get back to our roots. It’s important for us to make our own opportunities.”