James Edward Smrkovski

Dad loved his kids. In order, his son Vania, four generations...his grandfather, father and oldest daughter, Vesna, his oldest and youngest children, his oldest daughter on a lovely summer's day enjoying a taste of his favorite culture.

With great sorrow I just learned over the Internet of Jim's passing. I was his colleague at Westmar College in 1990/91 (he taught English to Japanese exchange students from Teikyo U and I taught German/Spanish). My wife is Czech and he visited us in the late 1990s in the Czech Republic (where I have subsequently been teaching English to Czech university students; I drove him to Kutna Hora in central Bohemia where his grandparents emigrated from. Once we found our way in my old Skoda car, there he reunited with his distant relatives. Back at Le Mars, I remember fondly his Thai wife and two little daughters (who never ate sweets!!!). Jim was a world traveller who mentioned to me a few things about his harrowing experiences in Saudi Arabia - though much less than what is provided here in the obit. He was as I understand the most popular ESL teacher at Westmar. While teaching full-time, he also studied elementary Japanese at Westmar. In linguistics he showed great interest for phonetics of every language. He was exacting regarding sound production, - exceptionally keen to not have an American accent when he spoke a foreign language.

An amazing man... I feel lucky to have known him even though it was for a relatively short time. My condolences to the three people in his life I spent some time with back in the early 1990s: his wife Ratana and two little daughters Rina and Vanda. (I remember his wife could really cook up a storm!)

=Christopher E. Koy, Ph.D.

James Edward Smrkovski, loving wife Jacqueline and daughter Vesna. 1966 Germany.

Christmas 2009: we were at a market in Jinghong and dad randomly makes friends with a very sweet family from the Jinuo tribe. They insisted we visit their village...so the next morning, we hop on a 4-hour bus ride deep into rural Xishuangbanna, we get off, and they send over 2 family members on 2 motorbikes...we hop on....and about an hour later (bouncing on dirt roads through the most emerald-green mountains you could imagine) we arrive at a village deep (I mean DEEP and REMOTE) in the jungle...we're the first Westerners ever to enter this amazing self-sufficient village, and we spend 3 days (including Xmas Eve and Xmas) living with them, cooking with them, feasting with them, dressing in traditional garb with them....this was typical James Edward Smrkovski-style travel: make few plans, trust the process, go with the flow.

One of the many epic trips we took: 30 days from Beijing down to Jinghong by train/bus/boat in 2009. Here's a photo I took of him climbing around the (old/non-reconstructed) Great Wall ruins...we stayed with an old Chinese farming couple near the ruins that week and had an amazing experience (no tourists other than us)...then we finished off the trip by sailing along the Mekong River with Myanmar to the west, Laos to the east until we reached Thailand where he did his visa run and I went back home to Bangkok.

our dad was definitely not basic

out and around Minneapolis, getting into (good) mischief!

Your love of carpentry, etymology, nature, cuisine and very weird humor live on in me, that's for sure!

Hoping this Odyssey-length obit does ya proud, Daddy. I could feel you in the room as I was writing. Love you & see you on the flip-side someday! xoxo

Celebrating his mom's 100th birthday!

He was larger than life our father. There is a dad sized hole in all of our hearts.

James and his grandson, Atlas (son of Rina and Tom)

James´s daughter, Rina and her husband, Tom took James on a cruise to the Bahamas with his grandson, Atlas!!