Richard Charles "Dick" Smith

Richard Charles Smith

Richard Charles Smith, known also as "Dick" or "R.C.", died on Saturday, March 5, 2011, at the age of 82.

He was born in Los Angeles, California, of a Canadian father and an American mother, the late Edward and Gladys Smith, and raised in Digby and Barton, Nova Scotia. He had one sister, Patricia, who also predeceased him.

On his 17th birthday, he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he was trained as a control tower operator. After that stint, he joined the Army Air Corps, and worked in air route traffic control. When the United States Air Force became a separate service, he continued this work for the Air Force.

He always was proud of his honorable discharge papers from three branches of the service and for the fact that he took his boot camp training with the Marines at Bainbridge, Maryland.

In 1950, he had orders to Korea, but the Air Force needed a control tower operator at their base in Bermuda. While in Bermuda, he met his future wife Barbara. In 1954, out of the Air Force, he convinced the University of Virginia that he was a likely student, despite not having completed high school, and he graduated from there with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

His career included work on the carrier USS Enterprise, at Sperry Marine Systems, at Acme Visible Records, and finally at the University of Virginia Facilities Management Department.

He deeply loved all the children in his life, and they all loved him. He was an avid golfer and his interests included all things aviation.

Besides his wife of 54 years, he is survived by his children, Pegeen and her husband, Bob Woodall, Kathleen and her husband, Blane Armstrong, and their daughters, Miriam and Rebecca; Stephen and his wife, Andrea, and their children, Katherine, Andrew, and Peter, and Eileen and her husband, Chris Griffiths, and their daughter, Jilan, as well as his extended family on his wife's side, Fred and Carolyn Bodden, and their four children; and seven grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Church of the Incarnation at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, 2011. There will be visitation with the family at the church beginning 11:45 a.m. and a reception will follow the Mass.

His family expresses their grateful appreciation of his team from Hospice of the Piedmont, his home health aides, and his doctor, all of who took such tender care of him.

Those wishing to make memorial donations in Dick's name may consider Hospice of the Piedmont, 675 Peter Jefferson Parkway, Suite 300, Charlottesville, VA 22911, or the Church of the Incarnation Building Fund, 1465 Incarnation Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22901.

Friends may send condolences to the family at www.hillandwood.com


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.