Richard Rick Smith

The Lord’s faithful Christian solider Richard Irvin Smith (Rick) passed away peacefully at age 64 in hospital near his home in Tucson Arizona on Friday, November 19, 2011 from sudden complications of pneumonia. Rick was born October 28, 1947 in Columbia, Missouri, the first of four children – Rick, Ed, Barbara and Gene – born to Nelletha Pearl Lavender Smith and William Walter Smith. He often told of an idyllic boyhood growing up in suburban Pittsburgh where his father was a well known engineer building bridges for highway systems in the northeast USA that still stand today. Later when his family moved to Florida (his mother’s birth state), he attended Lakeland Highschool and the University of Florida University where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree. Following college graduation he enrolled in Officer Candidate school and served in the Army as a First Lieutenant in Defense Systems for 4 years. During this time his son Stormy William Smith was born, and Rick soon relocated his family to Florida where he went on to achieve his Masters degree in Management of Information Systems. Soon after graduation he was lured by a job offer in St Joseph, Minnesota, where we was an administrator at The College of St. Benedict for many years. It was here in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” that Rick fell in love with canoe camping in the remote untouched areas of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and Canoe Area, which he enjoyed passionately and continually returned to for revitalization throughout his life, even though he later moved to the southeast and southwest USA. In North Carolina he worked as a professor of information systems at the graduate level, and again in Prescott Arizona. Leaving academia to become a businessman, Rick became a well respected financial market trader and a trainer of many of the world’s most successful foreign currency traders today. Rick also instigated numerous humanitarian projects and left our world a vast legacy of charitable good works. Visitors to this site are welcome to make a donation to Rick’s own charity that is committed to eliminating world hunger in our lifetime at www.worldlegacy.org. World Legacy feeds and educates starving children both here in the USA and worldwide, you’ll find the “Donate” button on the homepage. Finally settling in his later years in the peaceful sunshine of Tucson Arizona he enjoyed a life of simple pleasures looking out from the top of the hill to the twinkling city lights of Tucson below and enjoying the natural wildlife. Please say a prayer for this man who was one of the treasures of the planet, a sparklingly brilliant man who was well loved and will be greatly missed by so many worldwide. He is survived by his brothers and sister, and by his son Stormy and four grandchildren, Myriah, Devin, Kaitlin and Alysa, and his family of the heart, Trish, Andrea, Brian, Corban and Kayley. His memorial service is 11:30 AM Tuesday, November 21, 2011 at Saint Phillips in the Foothills (www.stphilipstucson.org ), with full military honors, and Holy Communion. This old historic Episcopalian church service is complete with the resounding century old cathedral pipe organ music that thrilled Rick no end. His ashes will be returned to the earth in two of the places he most loved – The Boundary Waters at a glorious lakeside vantage point (three day’s paddle from civilization) that moved him and breathed life into the words of his favorite author Sigard Olson, “Wilderness is a spiritual necessity for the good of our souls”; and at the lovely Columbarium Garden at “St. Phils in the Hills” where a memorial wall plaque will honor the life this fine man for generations to come and pay tribute to his eternal loving soul in a tranquil garden where he can abide forever in peace amidst the Sunday morning church bells and the uplifting pipe organ music. We fondly say farewell to Rick in the parting words Captain James Kirk as the Kirk era Star Trek Generations episodes come to a close and The Next Generation begins, “Course heading Captain?”, “Second star to the right … and straight on ‘till morning.” (StarTrek VI: The Undiscovered Country). See you later.