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Retired Judge Virgil C. Smith
Virgil Clark Smith, who served in the state House and Senate in Lansing before becoming a Wayne County Circuit Court judge, has died. He was 77. He retired from the bench in 2018.
His son, former state Sen. Virgil K. Smith, told Deadline Detroit that his father passed away early Monday morning at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He said he had been dealing with kidney failure and long-term Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
"Virgil Smith Sr. was one of the last old-school politicians who wasn't afraid to fight for residents in his Senate district," said local political commentator Adolph Mongo, host of the podcast Detroit in Black and White. "My condolences to his family."
Smith graduated from Detroit's Pershing High School in 1965 and went on to earn an undergraduate degree in political science from Michigan State University and a law degree from Wayne State University, according to his bio from the state Senate.
He married Evelyn Owens after college, and they had two children. They divorced, and In 1992, he married Elizabeth Little, and they had two children.
After law school, Smith became a legal advisor to community groups for Wayne County Legal Services. He later served as Senior Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Detroit Law Department.
He served in the House of Representatives for 11 years, from 1977 to 1988. In 1980 and 1981, he chaired the judiciary subcommittee on court reorganization, according to Ballotpedia.
He was elected to the state Senate in 1988 and served as the Senate Democratic floor leader from 1995 until 2001.
In 2002, he was appointed to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, serving as division chief of legislation and community outreach. In 2004, Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed him to the bench in Wayne County Circuit Court to fill a vacancy.
He served in the Family Division – Juvenile Section as the presiding judge from 2004 to 2006 and served as the first African American chief judge for Wayne County Circuit Court from 2009 to 2014. In 2014, he returned to the Juvenile Court as the presiding judge. He retired in 2018.
"I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Judge Virgil Smith. I was fortunate to have Virgil serve as my Chief Assistant Prosecutor from 2000-2003, where he led all major criminal cases," said Mayor Mike Duggan in a statement to Deadline Detroit.
"He was a great litigator, a great legislator and a great judge. More than that, he was a great friend - to me and so many others. Virgil’s passing is a great loss for our community. He will be greatly missed."
In 2021, Smith ran for a Detroit City Council seat in a district on the east side, which included the East English Village neighborhood. He lost the race for the seat now held by Council member Latisha Johnson.
"He was present and available," his son Virgil said. "He taught me the lawmaking process and how to run campaigns."
"He was very proud — the first African American floor leader in the Senate. He was very stern. As a child, I was afraid of him. As I got older, I understood why he was so disciplined. It’s tough, personally, how he came along. It’s tough to rise to the level that he rose without being very, very disciplined."
Richard Wiener, former Michigan Democratic chair and former chair of staff to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said:
“State Legislator. Assistant Prosecutor. Judge. Virgil Smith did so much … and did it with professionalism and a dignity. There are few elected officials that couldn’t learn a thing or two from how he conducted himself and conducted business."
"He will be missed and the example of service that he set will be missed even more.”
