James M. Smith Jr., teacher in S. Jersey

James M. Smith Jr. was not just a good quarterback.

He was a championship quarterback at Collingswood High School and a record-setting quarterback at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, his son Andrew, a lawyer for players on the Eagles, said Thursday.

On Wednesday, May 8, Mr. Smith, 66, of Collingswood, a high school teacher and coach in South Jersey, died of cancer at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Born in Camden, Mr. Smith graduated from Collingswood High in the mid-1960s, where he was the quarterback for three years.

In his senior year, the team "won all the championships that they could at that time," Andrew Smith said.

After winning an athletic scholarship to Delaware Valley, "my dad had three records that stood for 25 or 28 years," his son said.

The records, he said, were for "most touchdown passes in a game - which was five - most completions in a row - 22 - and the last one was most passes in a game," for which he did not recall the number.

After graduating, Mr. Smith taught at Collingswood and at what is now Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in Rumson, N.J., in the 1970s and 1980s. At both schools, his son said, Mr. Smith was on the coaching staff for the football team.

As a teacher, "he was in charge of the DECA program" at both schools, his son said, a program in which "kids would go to school from 8:30 to 12 and then go to a job." DECA was originally known as the Distributive Education Clubs of America.

After Mr. Smith's father died in the 1990s, the family returned to Collingswood and he resumed teaching at the high school there.

"For the past six years," his son said, Mr. Smith taught at Vineland (N.J.) High School, where he was the jobs-to-career coordinator, arranging state subsidies for employers to hire "low-income and disabled children" for summer and after-school jobs.

Mr. Smith was a board member of the Collingswood High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Besides his son, Mr. Smith is survived by wife Kathryn, daughters Jacqui Casadei and Jillian Keller, two brothers, and nine grandchildren. He is also survived by former wife Elaine Smith.

A visitation was set from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday, May 17, at the Foster-Warne Funeral Home, 820 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, before an 11:15 a.m. Funeral Mass at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Haddon and Fern Avenues, Collingswood.

Donations may be made at www.kimmelcancercenter.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.fosterwarnefuneralhome.com.