Douglas Smith

Douglas Wilcox Smith, aged 90, died peacefully at Laurel Circle in Bridgewater, New Jersey on March 3, 2025.

Doug was born in Cuba, New York on April 4, 1934 to Reta Smith (Wilcox) and Howard Smith. He graduated from Cuba Central School and went on to earn degrees from Yale University (BS) and New York University School of Medicine (MD). He completed a residency in Pathology at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York followed by two years of service in the U.S. Army, based at Madigan Army Medical Center near Tacoma, Washington. He then moved with his young family to East Brunswick, New Jersey and began his thirty-year career at Middlesex General Hospital, later named Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. He served there as Co-Director of the laboratory as well as Chief of Staff, a position he held for seventeen years.

Doug was an Eagle Scout in his youth and an equally avid camper, hiker, canoeist and water-biker. No sport in his life, however, enthralled him as much as sailing learned at a young age at the family cottage on Keuka Lake in New York State. He became a skilled competitive sailor, who along with his brother Robert, became a national K-Boat champion. He strongly encouraged his daughters to enjoy the sport as much as he did and his enthusiasm led him, with his family, to sail in the Virgin Islands, Grenadines, and Tonga. Doug also enjoyed sailing his prized 36-foot Freedom for many years in the Chesapeake Bay and its environs with family and friends.

In retirement, after relocating to the Eastern Shore of Maryland with family and sailboat, he honed his self-taught wood-working skills; a wide variety of bespoke mahogany furniture, handsomely crafted to last generations, graced his home and that of others whom he spoiled with it. These skills led him to volunteer with Home Building Together, an organization in Chestertown, Maryland that repairs living spaces for those less fortunate. Love of outdoors took him to Adkins Arboretum in Ridgely, Maryland, where, as a volunteer, he repaired trails and built bridges. For his service he was named 2014 volunteer of the year. Doug was also an engaged and loyal member of the Chestertown Lions Club.

He is survived by his wife Beryl (Kircaldie), his sister Susan Spring (John), three daughters: Alison Acton, Courtney Smith (Matthew Tuck), Stephanie Smith (Peter Herman) and six grandchildren: Aidan Riley, Spencer Tuck, Caroline Tuck, Graeme Tuck, Lulu Herman, and Theodore Herman. Doug will be remembered by his family with great love and pride. The ultimate problem-solver, inimitable whistler, and inveterate craftsman, Doug was an earnest friend who loved spending time with his extended family and friends. His penchant for impossibly tall Christmas trees was matched only by his enthusiasm for conversation as he enjoyed teaching anyone who dared to ask a question.

He will be missed but his legacy lives on in the next generations.