A local educator will be recognized this weekend as an honoree of East Carolina University’s Educators Hall of Fame.

DeAnne Smith, a first-grade teacher at Eastern Elementary School, will be honored along with 25 other ECU alumni, all of whom are educators, according to the ECU College of Education website. The induction will take place on Oct. 18 at 10 a.m. at the Hendrix Theater in Mendenhall on the ECU campus, Smith said.

Smith is part of a distinct family tradition — ECU and education. Her grandmother attended East Carolina Teacher’s College, her mother went to East Carolina College and she and her brother went to ECU, all graduating as educators. Smith’s mother and brother will also be inducted, she said.

Smith, a 1986 graduate of ECU, majored in the Early Childhood Education program, received her master’s degree from ECU in 1989 and is also National Board Certified, she said. She began her career 28 years ago at John A. Wilkinson High School, the precursor to Northside High School. After her first year of teaching, she spent the next seven years at Belhaven Elementary and finally ended up at Eastern Elementary School, where she has taught first grade the past two decades, Smith said.

“I just love working with little kids and watching them grow and learning stuff and watching the light bulb ‘come on,’” Smith said.

The ECU Educators Hall of Fame, initiated in 1999 to permanently acknowledge education professionals and associations who have made distinguished contributions to the field of education through service and mission, features a Wall of Fame in the Speight Building on the school’s campus, Smith said. The Wall features a plaque for each inductee. To be inducted, a nominee must be sponsored by someone. The sponsor secures the nomination with a minimum of $1,000 as a gift to the College, which goes toward an endowment scholarship. The scholarship money is then awarded to incoming freshmen that want to become teachers, according to Kendra Alexander, a major gifts officer at ECU College of Education. Alexander said the college has inducted over 400 people since its establishment.

Smith said she originally approached her father about sponsoring her mother for induction into the Hall of Fame. Smith, her brother and father were going to split the cost of the sponsorship, but Smith’s father decided to sponsor his wife, daughter and son, Smith said.

“Last fall, I approached him about doing this for my mom and we talked about it and we were just all going to split the cost,” Smith said. “Over Christmas, he decided he wanted to do all of us and he said, ‘Ya’ll are worth it.’ I guess he’s proud of all of us for going to school and becoming teachers. I’m excited about it because I just love ECU, and then to be there with my mom and brother, it’s an honor to me to be inducted with them.”