Rick Smith

1959 - 2021

Rick Smith

May 18, 1959 - December 28, 2021

Rick Smith passed away at HopeWest Hospice on Tuesday, December 28, 2021, after a courageous one-year battle with cancer. He was 62 years old.

Born James Richard Smith, in Evergreen Park, Illinois, to JoAnn and Dick Smith, Rick moved to Grand Junction at the age of nine. He briefly attended Lincoln Park Elementary before his parents purchased 40 acres at 2074 Broadway on the Redlands.

He then attended Broadway Elementary, where he met his lifelong best friend Gary Braa, Fruita Middle School and Fruita Monument High School, graduating in 1977.

Rick had a beautiful natural swing and fell in love with golf in his teens. He won a golf scholarship to Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona, graduating there in 1979, with a degree in Psychology. He then completed PGA Business School I in Phoenix, Arizona in 1981, and PGA Business School II in Hilton Head, North Carolina in 1982. He worked initially at Bookcliff Country Club in Grand Junction as an assistant pro to Gary Wuster, and then moved to the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort in Colorado Springs where he was first assistant pro to Dow Finsterwald, winner of the 1958 PGA Championship. During his nine years at the Broadmoor he was privileged to attend the Masters tournament and meet many golfing legends, including Arnold Palmer. Rick was first flight champion at the 1997 Colorado West Amateur golf tournament, third flight champion in 2010, and fourth flight champion in 2009 and 2015.

Rick was very talented with math and people, learning these skills early by working at Bynum's Western Wear owned by his father, and Open Range Gift Shop at the Grand Junction airport owned by his mother. After leaving the Broadmoor in 1991, he worked in sales and accounting for the next 16 years in Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah. He returned to Grand Junction in 2008 to assist his mother in managing her gift shop and also worked part-time at Tiara Rado Golf Course. When the airport gift shop closed in 2016, he worked at Rocky Mountain Shirt Company and then as Facilities Manager at the First Congregational Church until forced into retirement by his cancer diagnosis.

Rick met the love of his life, Patti Svaldi, shortly after returning to Grand Junction. They were married September 17, 2011, and enjoyed ownership a 19-foot Sea Ray speedboat, spending many beautiful days at their favorite place in the world, Lake Powell.

Rick is survived by his mother, JoAnn, and wife, Patti, of Grand Junction; daughter, Kristina Tirado, her husband, Abel, and grandson Jackson, of Las Vegas; three sisters and their husbands, Julie and John Harper, of Fruita, Janet and Jeff Winger, of Lander Wyoming, and Jill and Paul Jordan, of Littleton. His father preceded him in death.

A celebration of life to honor Rick's memory will be held at a later date.