Nathan "Nate" Smith

GILFORD ---- Late in the evening of Thursday, August 15, 2024, Nathan W. Smith, loyal husband, loving father and grandfather, passed away peacefully in the house that he built, in Gilford, NH.
Nathan's life's work was farming the land passed down from his father, Forrest Smith, and part of the original parcel farmed by his grandfather, Samuel Smith.
Nathan's life began in June of 1945, his childhood marked by work on his father's dairy farm on Morrill Street, as well as his grandparents' property at High Maples Farm also in Gilford. Nathan grew up surrounded by countless aunts, uncles, cousins and other extended family, building bonds that he cherished his entire life.
He attended Gilford Elementary School, before moving on to Laconia High School where he achieved renown as an all-state offensive lineman for Laconia's football team, and three-time class president. Throughout his life he took great joy in organizing and participating in his Class of 1963 reunions over the sixty plus years that followed. His commitment to classmates was alive even at the end, and was a duty he approached with the verve, joy and regimented passion that those who knew him, loved.
After high school, he moved on to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire on a Navy ROTC scholarship. A member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, Nathan graduated from the Thayer School of Engineering, with Phi Beta Kappa honors.
Following his graduation from Dartmouth, he matriculated to Columbia University in New York, where he received a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, and observed with his classmates that, "We must have solved every engineering problem there ever was."
While in college, Nathan met his future wife, Carolyn Rapp, a coed at the University of New Hampshire. They were wed in May of 1968, and created a union that produced three children, a successful business, endless laughter and a bond whose love all should emulate. After college, Nathan and Carolyn moved to support Nathan's commitment to the Navy, which revolved around his service with the Naval Nuclear Reactors program led by Admiral Hyman Rickover. It was during his service in the Navy that he began to realize the life of a naval officer was not for him, and thinking back to his earlier life, he resolved to return to New Hampshire and become a farmer.
Guided by this new commitment, Nathan returned to Gilford in 1974 and with his father's grudging blessing and gift of property on Sleeper Hill Road, began what would become his life's work, Smith Farm Stand. Starting with their original plot, the farm eventually expanded to field land at the corner of Sleeper Hill and Stark Street. In his forty years of full-time farming, Nathan would strive for a level of planning and precision made impossible by the vagaries of Mother Nature, and variabilities of the New Hampshire climate. Despite these frustrations, with his wife's support, an unwavering and bottomless commitment to hot coffee and unfiltered cigarettes, Nathan made a successful go of farming for forty years. He took great pride in providing his community with pick your own strawberries and raspberries, acres of sweet corn, vegetables from B for beans, to Z for zucchini, and his family's four generation commitment to maple syrup.
During his time as a farmer, you would find him up before dawn and working until after sunset. Often leading a gaggle of teenagers, for whom Nathan provided mentorship, good humor and exposure to a superhuman work ethic that would be an example many would carry throughout their own lives. Many workers continued to return decades after they left, to visit and share their own successes with the man who was their first, and often, their favorite boss. This second family was a constant source of joy and satisfaction for him throughout his life.
For his wife, Nathan's loyalty and affection would remain unattenuated to his dying day. He knew that he had found a supportive partner, a perfect friend and a loving wife who had no equal in his eyes. His expressions of admiration for her would become an almost rote refrain, but they never diminished in their authenticity or frequency. As a father, Nathan supported his children throughout their lives and endeavors, they knew they would always be able to count on him for wise counsel, a kind word and a knowing perspective on the travails that life can put in your way. His industry and drive served as an example that still animates the approach that his children take to their lives, and he served as a model for life to the grandchildren that he loved and doted upon.
For his nieces and nephews, cousins, classmates and coworkers in his much loved, 25-year second career at UPS, Nathan was many things to many people. Through the years he was a teacher of the process of maple syrup production, a gifted conversationalist, ever ready to debate and question, without malice or vitriol, and a confidant whose advice came with disarming humility but unwavering discernment. His curiosity, knowledge, able wit and gentle humor were a resource that all could draw upon and find comfort in, and its departure leaves the world a lesser place. His was a singular life, that served as a guidepost to happiness, hard work, intellectual curiosity and personal independence that made the world richer for its existence.
Nathan was predeceased by his parents, Forrest and Dorothy Smith, his brother Sam Smith and his son Matthew. Nathan is survived by his wife of fifty-six years, Carolyn Smith, originally of Carteret, New Jersey, his son Brent, and his wife Tanya Smith, of Goffstown, NH, daughter Maggie Savage, nee Smith, and her husband Alex Savage, of Laconia, NH, and his three grandchildren.
There will be no calling hours.
The family invites you to join them at St. Andre Bessette Parish - Sacred Heart Church, 291 Union Avenue, Laconia, NH, 03246, for a Mass of Christian Burial, on Friday, August 30, 2024, at 10:00am, to celebrate his life that meant so
much, to so many people.
For those inclined, the family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Lakes Region Visiting Nurses Association, 186 Waukewan Street, #6023, Meredith, New Hampshire 03253.
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services/603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, NH, 03246, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, please visit wilkinsonbeane.com.