Albert Frederick Smith

Albert Frederick Smith

New Ipswich, NH - Born July 11, 1934 to Alice M. Fischer and Albert H. Smith in Philadephia, PA. Died May 1st 2023 in New Ipswich NH, while being held by his son, daughter and wife, of age related illnesses complicated by a recent case of Covid-19.

He grew up in a fondly remembered house on Oxford Ave in Philadelphia where he learned to play tennis, and graduated from Frankford High School where he played on the baseball and basketball teams. He attended Penn State University, majored in Engineering Science, and graduated in 1956. Shortly after graduation he was married to his first wife in Ocean City NJ. He worked briefly for Vertol Aviation in the Drexel Hill area of Philadelphia, where his daughter was born. The family then moved to the Boston suburb of Waltham where Smith attended graduate school at MIT, matriculating in 1960 with a master's degree from the department of mathematics soon after the birth of a second child, a son. He learned to play banjo while in Waltham, developing a passion for the instrument and the music associated with it that lasted the rest of his life. Around that same time his niece taught him to sail, another lifelong enthusiasm. In 1961 the family moved to Lexington where he worked for MIT's Lincoln Laboratory until 1970. His final year for the Lab was on detail in California; after returning to Lexington, he changed careers and began teaching physics and math at Bedford High School.

Following a divorce and re-marriage, in the summer of 1981 he moved to southern New Hampshire to the town of New Ipswich, where he and wife Sharron bought a share in the Wildcat community. They built a solar powered house on that land which he lived in for the rest of his life. He taught physics at ConVal High School for 14 years until retiring in 1996, but continued tutoring for several years after. Following the death of his second wife in 1995, he re-married a third and final time. He was a quiet, modest man who loved his family, enjoyed playing chess and Go with son-in-law Ron Rodriguez, and made delicious bread and pizza, Chinese and Indian food.

He was predeceased by both of his sisters, Jean K. Miller and Betty A. Reagan and his second wife Sharron Langworthy Smith. He is survived by his wife Eleanor Cappa, his two children Bonnie Rodriguez and Albert Smith, two granddaughters Katie Morrill and Emily Langille, two great grandchildren, six step-children, and his first wife Jane Ann Smith.

Thanks to his family, his neighbors in the Wildcat community, Friends from Monadnock Quaker Meeting, and dear friends who tended to him along with Hospice care. Their help made it possible to honor his final request to have his well lived life come to its end in the home he built.

There will be a celebration of his life in July. No flowers or gifts please; he was a dedicated supporter of the ACLU, American Humanist Association, the Center for Inquiry, Doctors Without Borders, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and PBS.