W. E. Smith

Fourth District Judge W. E. (Bill) Smith, who as Ada County Probate Judge in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s revolutionized Idaho's juvenile justice system, died Thursday, June 15, 2006, at a Boise care center. Judge Smith was 87 years old, and the cause of death was the infirmities of aging. Funeral services will be held Monday, June 19, 2006 at 10 a.m. at St. Michael's Cathedral, with the Rev. Dr. Stan Tate officiating. Interment will follow at Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise. A reception will follow interment at the Basque Center. Services are under the direction of Cloverdale Funeral Home. Elected as Probate Judge in 1956, Smith inherited a juvenile justice system that often warehoused young offenders with hardened criminals at the old Ada County Jail. Judge Smith realized that such a system did more than punish teenaged offenders - it often turned them into repeat criminals. He thus took on the difficult - and at times politically unpopular - task of establishing a separate and modern juvenile court system with well-trained probation officers, counselors and staff; a first in Idaho. The court, in Smith's 12 years as Probate Judge, processed more than 7,000 petitions on juvenile violations, and the court staff was able to reduce commitments to the Idaho State Youth Training Center from 56 in 1958 to 26 in 1968. As the result of the programs instituted by Judge Smith, Ada County eventually approved and constructed a separate juvenile court facility in the Liberty Road area of West Boise. That facility now houses a modern court and detention facility that resulted from Judge Smith's groundbreaking work in juvenile justice. In 1968, Judge Smith was appointed to the Fourth District Court, where he served for 18 years, presiding over some of the most high profile criminal and civil cases of the 1970s and 1980s. He retired from the bench in 1988. Walter Elwood Smith Jr. was born on Dec. 9, 1918 in Boise, the first child of Walter E. Sr. and Laurel Vickers Smith. "Billy" as he was known in his childhood in Boise's North End, grew up with his little brother Jerry as a typical 1930s Boise youngster. He attended Lowell School through 8th grade, and Boise High School, graduating in 1937. He enrolled at the University of Idaho, and pledged Kappa Sigma fraternity, graduating in 1941 with a degree in accounting. Following graduation, he took a job in the auditing department of the Sun Valley Corporation, where he was working when World War II broke out on Dec. 7, 1941. Smith enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 along with a group of young men from the Treasure Valley who were affiliated with the auto repair industry. Smith's father Walt was a traveling auto parts salesman and secured a spot for his son in a jeep maintenance company made up of the children of his clients. Not content, however, to remain behind the lines, Judge Smith volunteered for and was accepted into Officer Candidate's School, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Field Artillery in 1944. Assigned to the 77th (Liberty) Infantry Division, which was at the time fighting its way across the Pacific, Judge Smith saw combat during the bloody invasion of Okinawa, where he assumed command of his howitzer battery after his CO was wounded during fierce fighting on that island. After Okinawa was secured, Judge Smith was promoted to First Lieutenant and his battery was preparing for the invasion of Japan when the war in the Pacific ended on Aug. 14, 1945. Judge Smith then was assigned to the American occupation forces in Japan, where he served until 1946 when he left the active Army and returned to Idaho. He remained with a reserve unit in Boise until 1953 when he was discharged from the service. Smith enrolled at the University of Idaho College of Law from which he was graduated in 1949. He was briefly in private practice in Boise, and also served as an Ada County Deputy Prosecutor and an Idaho State Assistant Attorney General, and in the general counsel's office of Allied Stores in Seattle, before he was elected as Probate Judge in November 1956. Judge Smith married Eileen Patricia Coughlin, also of Boise, at St. John's Cathedral on April 17, 1950, and four children - all of whom followed Judge Smith's footsteps into the law - were born of this 56 year union. Judge Smith was a 50-year member of the Idaho State Bar Association, and was a board member of El-Ada, Inc., a Community Action board, an assistant Boy Scout scoutmaster and Explorer Post committee chairman. He was the chairman of the program committee for the Foundation on Youth, and was a frequent speaker at numerous civic and fraternal meetings in Boise. Judge Smith was a Master Mason, Boise Lodge No. 2, a 50-year Mason, Scottish Rite of Full Masonry, member of El Korah Shrine Temple, and the Legion of Honor of the Order of DeMolay. Judge Smith is survived by his wife of 56 years, Eileen, of Boise; his four children, Stephen C. Smith (Kathleen Cornelson Smith, Kellan and Grayson) of Honolulu; Professor Thomas A. Smith (Jeanne Gromer, M.D., Luke, Patrick, William and Mark) of San Diego; U.S. District Judge William E. Smith (Christine Boris Smith, Katie and Allison) of Providence, R.I.; and Patricia Smith Cassell (U.S. District Judge Paul G. Cassell, Anna, Emily and Sarah) of Salt Lake City; his brother, Jerry V. Smith (Paulette) of Lewiston; and numerous nieces and nephews. The family requests no flowers, and instead suggests memorials to the "Judge W.E. Smith Memorial Fund" at the University of Idaho College of Law. Memorials in Judge Smith's name can be mailed to: the University of Idaho Foundation, Gift Administration Office, PO Box 443147, Moscow, ID 83844-3147. The Fund will endow a lecture series for future generations of Idaho law graduates.