Richard Harrison Smith

Richard Harrison Smith Resident of Lafayette, California 1920-2015 Richard Smith passed away peacefully at his home on July 25th after a brief illness, with family members at his side. Richard was born in the village of Ellenville, New York, the third child of Edward and Frances ODell Smith. As he grew up in the Catskills, he particularly enjoyed hiking in the woods and mountains, so after graduating from high school he went to the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse, where he earned a BS, the first in his family to receive a degree from a four-year institution. He later earned an MS in Forest Entomology at Syracuse and was elected to the Sigma Xi science honor society. He received a PhD in Forest Entomology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1961. Except for a brief stint as a plant nursery inspector in New Jersey immediately before being drafted into the Army, his entire professional career was spent as a forest insect research scientist for the U.S. government, first with the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine in Beltsville, Maryland, from 1947 to 1952 and then with the Forest Service in Lake City, Florida (1952-1955) and Berkeley, California (1955 -1989). While his early work focused on the powder post beetle and the black turpentine beetle, he was best known as an expert on the destructive Western pine beetle. He was interested in the biology ecology of this insect and conducted path-breaking investigations into the resistance of different pines to the beetle. After induction into the Army in the fall of 1942, Richard underwent basic training and entered Officer Candidate School. He was proud of his three years of service in the European theater as a member of the 124th Anti-Aircraft Artillery battalion, achieving the rank of captain before being honorably discharged. For much of the war, he was stationed on the south coast of England, where he worked with early computers to track, triangulate, and shoot down German buzz bombs aimed at London. During his stateside training at Camp Haan, near Riverside, California, he met Mary Louise Casey. They were married in 1946 and celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary three years before her death in 1999. Richard loved the outdoors, classical music, and baseball. Although his research required extensive time in the forests of the Sierra Nevada, he also spent many leisure hours in his home garden and was especially fond of growing vegetables. His favorite class in elementary school was music, and as a youth he listened to broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. During his adult life, recordings of classical music were usually on the phonograph or the radio. The New York Yankees were the team he followed and remained loyal to from childhood. He was a lifelong Episcopalian and an active member of St. Stephens Episcopal Church, Orinda, until his final years, serving on the Vestry, teaching Sunday School, and encouraging environmental stewardship. In his retirement, he completed a book-length summa of his research and wrote and published a biography of his wife, Mary Louise Smith, 1917-1999: A 20th Century Homemaker. He is survived by his children, Carolyn Knapp (Robert) of Oakland and Bruce (Deborah) of Pleasant Hill, four grandchildren: Abigail Knapp Cruz (Christopher), Hannah Knapp (Rob Evans), Stephen Smith, and Jeffrey Smith, and three great-grandchildren: Ava Cruz, Gilbert Evans, and Henry Evans. Friends and family are invited to a memorial service on September 19th at 10 a.m. at St. Stephens Episcopal Church, Orinda. In lieu of flowers, donations in his honor may be made to Episcopal Relief and Development or to St. Stephens. Memorial Service Saturday, September 19, 2015 10:00 am