05/23/2026
State Rep. Matt Bradford, Rep. Greg Scott and the offices of Rep. Joe Webster and Sen. Amanda M. Cappelletti joined local officials and the family and friends of E. Pearl Smith this week to celebrate the naming of a local bridge in Smithโs memory.
The E. Pearl Smith Memorial Bridge is identified as Bridge Key 27695, carrying State Route 3006, also known as Whitehall Road, over Kepner Creek in East Norriton Township. Legislation naming the bridge was signed into law as Act 17 of 2025.
Public officials joined Smithโs family and friends on Wednesday at the West Norriton Township Building to remember Smith and her many contributions to the community; namely, her role as school board president at Norristown Area School District and her decades-long involvement at Mt. Zion AME Church in Norristown.
"Pearl exemplified service โ service to her community, her church and, most importantly, her family,โ said Bradford, D- Montgomery. โHer legacy will live on thanks to her many contributions, and this bridge dedication is one way that we can memorialize and remember our friend and neighbor.โ
"Honoring Pearl Smith is appropriate and necessary, considering her decades of dedication to our community and to the values we hold dear,โ said Webster, D-Montgomery. โWe are all better for her work and its lasting impact."
โItโs fitting that we honor E. Pearl Smith in this way because her life was about bridging connections in our community. She made the road a little easier for folks who look like me and who came from our neighborhood. Itโs more than a bridge, itโs about her legacy,โ said Scott, D-Montgomery. โI had the honor of knowing her not just through the education experience as a student in Norristown Area School District but also as a member of Mt. Zion AME Church. She stood firm in her faith and she taught us the value of faith even in difficult times. She carried out a life of service with integrity and honesty while raising a family, and she did it all with poise and elegance. Itโs an honor to have been able to vote with my colleagues on the legislation that names this bridge after E. Pearl Smith.โ
"Our community is incredibly fortunate to have had Pearl leading the way in our Norristown neighborhood. This bridge is a small, but deeply meaningful way to pay tribute to her lifetime of service. I look forward to seeing her legacy live on each time we drive by," said Cappelletti, D-Delaware/Montgomery.
โMy mother was passionate about serving the Norristown community and the Norristown Area School District,โ said Ernest Smith, Pearlโs son. โShe never accepted anything less than perfection in serving the people of the community. She and my father were dedicated to the church and the community and would do anything for them. She played many roles, but her favorite role was being a wife and mother. She was our matriarch. Itโs an honor for her to be honored.โ
E. Pearl Smith was born in Norristown and spent her life dedicated to helping the community. She was a devout and active member of Mt. Zion AME Church, serving on the Steward Board for 45 years and on multiple church committees. She served as a member of Business and Professional Womenโs Inc. and received the Woman of the Year award in 1998-1999.
Her accolades included the Elwood Lodge #438 Community Service Award in 2011, the George W. Commandery Award in 2003, the Norristown Educational Foundation Service Award and the Distinguished Recognition from the Pennsylvania School Education Association.
Smith was elected as a director of the school board at Norristown Area School District, a position she held for 16 years until she retired in 2016. On the board, she also served as the chair of the Education Foundation's technology committee, was a board representative of the NASD Foundation and was co-chair of the budget committee.
Smith also served as Joint Operating Committee chair for the Central Montgomery County Technical High School, assistant Region 11 director and liaison for the Pennsylvania School Board Association on the governance and by-law committees, and she held the same title for the Norristown School Board, as well as serving as the minority representative.
Smith was also a volunteer for the American Cancer Society's Road to Recovery and a lifetime member of the Philadelphia Purchasing Association's ad hoc Diversity Committee.
A beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Smith and her husband, Ernest, raised their four sons in Norristown. Upon their retirement, Pearl and Ernest moved to West Norriton Township. She died on March 9, 2024 at age 85. (submitted image)
