Obituary: Ron Smith

RONALD HENRY SMITH. Husband, father, friend, publisher, photographer, gardener, author, hiker, naturalist, hunter, fisherman, BBQ-er, traveler, professor, birder, cowboy, sage, singer, DIYer and sourdough cook.

RONALD HENRY SMITH. Husband, father, friend, publisher, photographer, gardener, author, hiker, naturalist, hunter, fisherman, BBQ-er, traveler, professor, birder, cowboy, sage, singer, DIYer and sourdough cook.

RONALD HENRY SMITH. Husband, father, friend, publisher, photographer, gardener, author, hiker, naturalist, hunter, fisherman, BBQ-er, traveler, professor, birder, cowboy, sage, singer, DIYer and sourdough cook. Ron Smith left us on Aug. 6, 2018. Ron was kind, magnanimous, dryly funny but never mean, soft-spoken but not shy, well-read but not snooty, and usually the first to arrive and last to leave parties.

Ron was born in Queens, New York, on June 28, 1931, to Harry Smith and Beatrice I. Stone Smith, later to be joined by his little brother Neal. Like most kids in those days, he had many adventures growing up during the war years in Western Mass: “All of these little adventures fed my love of the outdoors and forests,” he said.

In his high school junior year his dad bought a property and together they built a home there, the kids working as school would allow. To help with family bills, Ron worked part-time jobs delivering milk, hoeing weeds and bringing in hay, working in orchards, and making caskets at a local lumber yard.

He attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1949, switching majors in his junior year to wildlife management. He joined ROTC his second year in college. which later coincided with the Korean War. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree, Ron reported for military service, first at Fort Knox, Kentucky and then Fort Richardson, Alaska. He was assigned to a tank company, but never saw actual combat because of the winding down of the war.

After his military service, Ron entered the Wildlife Research Unit at Utah State University where he received his Master of Science degree, studying the breeding habits of the Chukar Partridge. His research allowed him long stays in remote areas in the Utah backcountry. He told many wonderful stories of herding sheep, fishing in the high country, and collecting dinosaur bones during his Utah summers.

In 1958 Ron landed his “first and only permanent employment” with th Arizona Game & Fish Department, loving his job until he retired in 1988.

In 1961 Ron met country-farm-girl-turned-graphic-artist Loraine Remington. They married in 1962, and remained happily married until her death in 2008. They raised their kids, Stephen, Alan and Julie, in North Phoenix, moving only once to Vermont for six months in 1977, when Ron took a sabbatical to teach at the University of Vermont for a semester.

In 1988, Ron and Loraine moved to Pine Woods Road in Prescott, his beloved home for 30 years. He embraced his new community with flair and fervor, joining city planning commissions, trails associations and land trusts. He researched and wrote two trail books, Mountain Sojourns and six editions of Central Highlands Trails, considered by many to be among the best trail guides of the area. He also found time to remain active in Sacred Heart Church and the Prescott Master Chorale, and helped others publish books, as well as traveled around the country and the world.

In 2010 Ron married Vaughn Delp. Between them they happily shared seven children and twelve grandchildren. They lived together on Pine Woods Road in Prescott, enjoying friends and classes together until his health declined in late 2017.

Memorial Mass is today, Tuesday, Aug. 14, at 11:30 a.m., at St. Germaine Catholic Church, 7997 E. Dana Dr., Prescott Valley, followed by a remembrance luncheon at Highland Center for Natural History. An interment ceremony will be at the V.A. Prescott Cemetery at 1 p.m., on Wed., Aug. 15.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to Highlands Center for Natural History, The Hungry Kids Project or Quixote’s Garage.

Information provided by survivors.


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