Lawrence C. Smith

Lawrence (Larry) C. Smith was born in Denver, CO to Edward and Orpha Smith on February 23, 1943. By age 2 the family moved to Richland, WA due to job opportunities at the Hanford Plant. This is not only where Larry participated in building “The Place” but also where he met his future bride. In December of 1967 he and Melinda (Mindy) Robison were married. Shortly after Larry earned his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Washington. They would then add their first bundle of joy, Jennifer (Jenny) in 1972, move to Kirkland, WA and then welcome their second bundle of joy, Julie in 1979. He worked at Boeing for a short time, followed by M & R Industries and eventually started his own business, called Autronix. This led to an opportunity to work for Harper Engineering before retiring in December of 2008. Throughout his career, Larry not only designed parts for Boeing airplanes, such as overhead storage bin latches and the oxygen mask release but he also worked with Roger Teeter on the Inversion Table, quick release boot binding, and Hangups. When he wasn’t designing, modifying, or creating Larry was either playing his guitar, whistling, working a puzzle, playing Suduko, tinkering on the computer, or telling puns but most of all loved spending time with friends and family.

As Larry is reunited with many friends and family that departed before him, he is survived by his wife Mindy (Melinda) of 58 years, children Jenny (Brian) Mitchell and Julie (Dan) Scholzen, along with his granddaughter Natalie Scholzen.  

A visitation period, funeral service, and graveside committal will be taking place.  Please reach out to the family for time and location details.  If you do not have the family's contact information, please call Curnow Funeral Home at (253) 863-2800 and we will let them know you are interested in coming to support them.