Heather Lee Smith

Lover of Travel

By the time she was 7, Heather Smith had learned more about Islamic culture than many people learn in a lifetime. Her family moved to Tehran, Iran, where her father, George Smith, helped to set up purchasing departments at Iranian companies. "Culturally, Heather was always very mindful of her manners," said her mother, Judy Smith, 53. "She said, `At least we're not the ugly Americans.' "

After three years in Tehran, the family moved to Laguna Niguel, Calif., where Ms. Smith lived until she went away to college. But her love of foreign culture never ended. Her final year in college, Ms. Smith took a two-week trip to South Korea, Thailand, Japan and China.

"She absolutely loved to travel," her mother said. "She never had a problem putting the backpack on and climbing on the plane."

Judy Smith recalled that her daughter had to work extra hard in school after the family returned from Iran. Her parents said that her sense of purpose continued as she graduated from the California State University at Fullerton and began working in Boston as a real estate investment analyst, first for Koll Brem Schreiber Realty Advisers and then for Beacon Capital Partners, which sent Ms. Smith, 30, on a trip to its Los Angeles office on United Airlines Flight 11.

Ms. Smith was working at Koll when she met Mike Jammen, a Boston real estate consultant who would later propose marriage during a Nantucket getaway. "I met her when she was 26 but she just carried herself as someone much more mature," said Mr. Jammen, 36. "She would strike you as someone who knew where she was going and what she wanted to do."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on April 7, 2002.


Heather L. Smith,

real estate analyst

By Globe Staff, 9/27/2001

Heather Lee Smith of Boston, a real estate investment analyst with Beacon Capital Partners, died Sept. 11 in the terrorist attack. She was 30.

Ms. Smith was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11.

Born in Long Beach, Calif., she attended the University of Portland in Oregon and graduated from California State University at Fullerton.

She was affiliated with Koll Management Services and Koll Bren Schreiber before joining Beacon Capital Partners.

She had been at Beacon Capital for just eight weeks. "Heather Smith was a young and gifted financial analyst starting out on a highly promising career," Beacon's chief executive, Alan M. Leventhal, said last week.

She leaves her parents, George and Judy Smith of Farmington, Conn.; a brother, Chad, of Aliso Viejo, Calif.; and her fiance, Michael Jammen of Boston.

A memorial Mass was said on Sept. 17.