Wayne L. Smith

The family of Wayne L. Smith is saddened to announce his death. He died on Monday, December 29, 2025, after a brief illness. Family man, scientist, educator, environmentalist, athlete-his was a life well lived.

Wayne was born on January 29, 1936, in Oneonta, N.Y., to Evelyn Basinger Marks and Lee Chester Smith. He graduated from Laurens (N.Y.) Central School as valedictorian in 1953. The first in his family to graduate from a four-year college, Wayne began his undergraduate career at Syracuse University, in Syracuse, N.Y., where he majored in forestry. After the death of his father and a change in major to chemistry, he transferred to Hartwick College, in Oneonta, N.Y., where he earned a BA degree in chemistry in 1957. He then went on to graduate school at Pennsylvania State University in State College, where he earned his PhD degree in chemistry in 1963. In his first year at Penn State, he met his future wife, Louise Schmoyer, a senior majoring in bacteriology and minoring in chemistry. They were married on November 25, 1959, in Reading, Pa.

After graduate school, Wayne and Louise moved to Ann Arbor, where Wayne conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan. The family then moved to New Jersey, where Wayne worked as a research chemist at Allied Chemical Corp. on rocket fuel; he occasionally remarked that he had been a rocket scientist. Around this time, Wayne decided to leave industry for academia, starting with a visiting faculty position at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1967, he joined the chemistry faculty at Colby College in Waterville, Me. By then, Wayne and Louise had a son and a daughter; a second son would be born two years later.

A man of few words, Wayne heeded the advice of his father, who quoted: "Don't break the silence unless you can improve on it." (William Ralph Inge) and "Better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." (unknown)

A lifelong competitive athlete, Wayne played football, basketball, volleyball, and baseball in high school. However, after seeing Syracuse classmates and standout athletes Jim Brown and Vinnie Cohen playing basketball one day, Wayne concluded that there was no way he could compete at their level. Soon after, he went to the library and read How to Play Better Tennis, by Bill Tilden. Thus began his enduring love of racquet sports, including squash, platform tennis, and tennis, which he played regularly until he was 85, enjoying the camaraderie of good friends and never missing the opportunity to make a drop shot. Wayne also noted that while living in New Jersey, he beat the guy who beat Arthur Ashe in a youth tennis tournament (acknowledging, however, that his friend was a few years older than Ashe at the time). At any rate, his children remember a poster in their home of Snoopy with a tennis racquet and the motto, "It doesn't matter if you win or lose … until you lose."

Throughout his life, Wayne enjoyed spending time outdoors, both in active pursuits and in conservation efforts. In his youth, he was a Boy Scout-ultimately becoming an Eagle Scout. (Perhaps it was as a Boy Scout that the "5Ps"-"prior planning prevents poor performance"-an adage that he lived by until the very end of his life-became ingrained in his psyche.) While in high school, he and three friends made a five-day, 90-mile canoe trip down the Susquehanna River from Cooperstown to Binghamton, N.Y., portaging when they encountered dams and camping at night. (This was his first trip out of state, as the Susquehanna meandered through Pennsylvania.) The same group, along with other Scouts, also raised and released pheasants, installed nest boxes for wood ducks, and planted trees. In retirement, Wayne continued to plant trees as a member of the Belgrade Tree Committee. During his 33-year tenure at Colby, he decided that it would be better for both the environment and his health if he walked or rode his bike the two miles to work every day, instead of driving.

As an educator, Wayne always sought to bring chemistry and science to life for others, drawing connections between science and folklore, with the belief that science was nothing more than "organized common sense". He performed chemistry magic shows both at local elementary schools-delighting the pupils and occasionally scaring their teachers-and for the general public, opting to perform such a show rather than give a speech when he retired from Colby in 2000. While at Colby, he was committed to the education of both science and nonscience majors. He taught courses in general chemistry (for which he co-authored a textbook, Principles of Chemistry, with Loren Hepler) and inorganic chemistry, and he conducted research with chemistry majors. For nonmajors he developed a "chemistry for citizens" course, and he collaborated with colleagues in the English and philosophy departments on an integrated course to bridge the divide between the "two cultures" in academia-a testament to his belief that the sciences and humanities were intertwined.

He was fascinated by the many advances in technology, policy, and medicine that occurred in his lifetime. When his children were young, he gathered them together regularly to share his ideas about "Better Things"-ranging from electric appliances and pocket calculators to child labor laws and the 40-hour work week to penicillin and the polio vaccine and fluoridation.

He is predeceased by his wife of 65 years, Louise, as well as his parents and his sister Marilyn. He is survived by his children Gregor, Andri (Brian), and Carter (Jeanette); and grandchildren Valerie (Emmanuel), Jeffrey, and Owen.

Wayne's family is grateful for the wonderful care he received at Connecticut Hospice and from his other caregivers, as well as for the compassionate staff at The Green Cremation.

A celebration of his life will be held in the summer and will be announced.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to one of Wayne's favorite organizations: Colby College, Hartwick College, Penn State University, 7 Lakes Alliance, Educare Central Maine, Maine Public Radio, or Union of Concerned Scientists.