William S. Smith

William S. Smith

The Reverend William S. Smith of Charlottesville died on Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge. He was former pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church on Rugby Road.

He was born on October 12, 1926, in Austin, Texas, son of William Arthur and Charlotte Spence Smith.

After graduation from Austin High School he attended the University of Texas, leaving school for a stint in the United States Navy during the last part of World War II. He returned to the University of Texas and received a degree in 1948. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Mr. Smith was married to Dorothy Clare Ruggles of Dallas, Texas, on September 1, 1947.

Following graduation from Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1951, he returned to Texas to serve Presbyterian churches in Hamilton, Brownwood, and Lubbock. In the summer of 1969, he was called to the pastorate of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville.

Born to Bill and Clare were three daughters, Dorothy, Anne, and Kathe, all born in Texas. Their daughter, Anne Smith Shumake, died in October 1998.

Upon retirement from Westminster Church at the end of 1991, after 22 years there, Mr. Smith found a church home at the Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, adding his voice to the bass section of its choir. In February 1993, he became one of the first chaplains at the Health Care Center of Westminster-Canterbury, serving in that capacity for eight years.

Mr. Smith was active on countless church committees and acted as Moderator of the Presbytery of the Southwest and of the Presbytery of the Blue Ridge, as well as Moderator of the Synod of the Virginias. Statewide, he was on the first Board of Directors of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

In the Charlottesville community, Mr. Smith was a member of the Jefferson Area Board for Aging for two terms and its chairman for three years. He was first chairman of the Social Development Commission of the City of Charlottesville on its birth. He served for one term as chairman of the local Memorial Planning Society. Other activities included the boards of the Tuesday evening Concert Series, the local ACLU group, Family Service Society, the Information and Referral Service, and Piedmont Mainstream Citizens. In later years he was on the Ethics Committees of Martha Jefferson House, Westminster-Canterbury, and Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

Survivors are Clare, his wife of 64 years; daughters, Dorothy Smith and Kathe Smith Dunder and her husband, Tom; two nieces and a nephew.

Among Bill's passions were a love of music and poetry. He was a lifelong devotee of Bach and Duke Ellington, of Mozart and the Modern Jazz Quartet, of the string quartet and the jazz trio. His daughters have fond memories of coming home from school on Tuesdays, his day off, to Bach cello sonatas and the smell of his freshly baked bread. He cherished family beach vacations and spent many summer hours fishing at Rockport, Texas, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He was a great collector and teller of jokes, often greeting visitors with the question, "Do you have any new material?" and challenging his daughters to recall jokes based on the punch line alone. His lifetime trove of bawdy humor was compiled into "The Last Whole Joke Catalogue", a volume of which now resides in each family's library. Bill treasured his weekly bridge games with buddies and earned the family honorific "The Old Master" for his skill at cribbage.

Outside of public service and his family, Bill was proud of a few other achievements. He grew up in Boy Scout Troop 20 in Austin, Texas, and was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout. Noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr described his Bachelor of Divinity thesis as "the best . . . I have read so far" and "a most discriminating piece of work". Bill was honored that Westminster Church commissioned and built its 1980 Taylor and Boody pipe organ, made in Virginia, during his tenure there.

A memorial service will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 190 Rugby Road, 11 a.m. Saturday, April 9, 2011, with the Reverend Carson Rhyne Jr., General Presbyter of the Presbytery of the James, presiding, assisted by the present pastor of Westminster Church, the Reverend James Baker.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts would be appreciated by the Jefferson Area Board for Aging: to JABA, 674 Hillsdale Drive, Suite 9, Charlottesville, VA 22901, or the Mission and Outreach Fund of Westminster Presbyterian Church, 190 Rugby Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.