Dr. Samuel Nowell Smith

1940 - 2022

Dr. Samuel Nowell Smith

January 28, 1940 - July 17, 2022

Dr. Samuel Nowell Smith of Roanoke, Va., departed this life for a better place on Sunday, July 17, 2022, after a long illness.

Dr. Smith practiced medicine in Southwest County for over 30 years. He was proud to serve as a Primary Care Physician for multiple generations of families stretching along 221 and Bent Mountain, Va. and all the way to Floyd County. He was a wonderful husband, father, brother, uncle, and grandfather. He often served as a surrogate parent for anyone who needed help and guidance. Dr. Smith was a man of faith, a Christian in word and deed: healing and helping others was his natural vocation.

He is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Joan Sullivan Smith; brother, George Albert Smith III of Morristown, N.J.; daughter, Jessica Smith of Los Angeles, and grandchildren, Sullivan and Spencer Smith-Davis; and son, Ben Smith and grandchildren, Julia and Michael Smith of Bristow, Va.

He was preceded in death by his younger brother, Robert Nowell Smith, and grandson, Robert Spencer Smith.

Dr. Smith was born near Boston, Mass., son of Harvard Business School Professor George Albert Smith Jr., and Mrs. Ruth Nowell Smith. He attended Belmont High School, where he was basketball co-captain and Senior Class Vice President. After high school, he completed his pre-medical studies at Harvard and MIT. In 1962 he married Joan Cullen Sullivan, who years before had sat behind him in the junior high home room. In 1965, he entered Wake Forest (Bowman-Gray) Medical school. Having found his true calling, Sam excelled in Medical School, graduating near the top of his class, and selected for the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society.

After finishing his residency, Dr. Smith served in the United States Army Medical Corps in Roanoke, Va. Dr. Smith fell in love with the people and the mountains of Roanoke during his Army service. He began his career as a true country doctor in 1972, opening a small practice house on Bent Mountain. He did calls in all types of weather and was known to accept the odd bushel of corn in lieu of payment. He truly adored and respected his many colleagues at Lewis Gale hospital and Clinic over the many years as his practice grew.

He had great affection for his patients, and his care for them often stretched beyond their health needs. His wisdom was such that he found himself playing roles of marriage counselor, youth counselor, and spiritual counselor. On one memorable occasion he was called in to successfully resolve a barricade situation for a troubled patient who would only talk to him.

Outside of medicine, his great passion was playing country and folk music. Self-taught on guitar and gifted with a rare and lovely baritone voice, he performed with local bands throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.

He was widely read, as was evident from the thousands of books which lined the walls of his home. He instilled in his children a love of history, science fiction, and world literature. Charles Dickens and Dostoyevsky were his great favorites. His music collection was legendary, spanning blues, jazz, folk, country, and rock.

When he and Joan became empty nesters in the 1980s, they enjoyed hiking and traveling with their many good friends in the Roanoke area. They became grandparents in 1999, but retirement was still far off when everything changed for him and his family.

In 2002, he suffered a massive stroke that left him totally paralyzed on his left side. Against all odds, he survived, but was no longer able to work. With patience, faith, and courage, and with heroic support from his wife and caregivers who became like family, he was able to remain at home for another 20 years. He derived great joy from watching birds, deer, and, and his beloved dogs running around in the woods. In 2021, a series of diabetic complications ended his years at home, and he spent most of his remaining months at the Virginia Veterans Care Center. He adapted well to this new life, and took interest in his fellow residents, sometimes offering medical advice to staff and family.

He never stopped making friends at any point in his life, and he stayed close with all of his boyhood and college friends, as well as his beloved bandmates from his Grievous Angels days. In his later years, his caregivers â€" among them an Iraqi doctor and a former Peshmerga bodyguard for U.S. forces â€" became family to him and Joan.

Doctor Smith's Funeral Service will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 23, 2022, at St. John's Episcopal Church at 1 Mountain Avenue, SW in Roanoke. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the church. Burial will follow at Evergreen Burial Park.

In lieu of flowers, his wish was for donations to be made to St. John's Endowment Fund. Online condolences may be expressed at www.Oakeys.com.

Arrangements by Oakey's Funeral Service â€" South Chapel, (540) 989-3131.