Harold E. Smith II has been reunited with his loving wife Helen and their Basset Hounds, Missy, Daisy Norman, Dreyfus, Hooker, Homer and others too numerous to mention. The morning of Nov. 19, he passed away at the Truman VA Hospital in Columbia after losing the fight against COVID-19.
Harold, “Smitty” to his friends and “Sonny” to his relatives, spent his last decades enjoying life on the farm and golf course.
He and Helen moved to Missouri in 1964, with three sons and a breeding pair of tri-color Basset Hounds. They came from Monroeville Pa., where he had been employed as a ceramic engineer for US Steel.
He later told his children he accepted the position as international consultant with Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical of Mexico, because he wanted to raise them on a farm.
Working for Kaiser, he traveled up and down the North and South American continents, as well as the Caribbean basin.
This enabled him to utilize the language skills he had acquired while earning his geology degree at Bucknell University, as well as during his service with the U.S. Army. He was proficient in German, Spanish and Italian.
He served his country as part of the Army of Occupation in Europe, where working as a surveyor, under the cover of secrecy, he mapped unspecified portions of Russian-held Eastern Europe.
After the move to Missouri, he and Helen had their fourth child, Megan, their daughter.
Harold loved sports and competition.
He was a three-sport letterman in high school and college and continued competing after college. He also boxed competitively during his time in the Army. He was a member of a Pittsburgh-based track and field club and won state and regional AAU medals. His events were the high-jump, pole-vault and javelin. Additionally, he also played semi-professional basketball and fast-pitch softball.
Though competitive, he never bragged about his sporting accomplishments and encouraged his children to follow suit.
When his children were in middle and high school, he lent his expertise to helping teach pole-vaulting as well as umpiring little-league.
As he yielded to the demands of age, he devoted more time to golf and bowling. He and Helen were both elected to the Missouri Bowling Hall of Fame.
He golfed extensively with his friends from Kaiser at the Arthur Hills Kaiser League and later at the former Centralia Country Club, when not working with his Angus-Chianina cattle on his farm in Thompson.
When not hunting, fishing or farming he enjoyed being a member of various civic/community service groups, including but not limited to the Mexico Optimists Club – charter member, Mexico Host Lions Club – charter member and he continued the family tradition as a Shriner and a Mason.
He was also a deacon of St. Mathews Episcopal Church in Mexico.
He is survived by his four children: Megan (Tory) Lucas of Lynchburg, VA, Christopher Smith of the farm, William C. Smith (Carolee) of Minneapolis Minn. and James.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Shriners, the Audrain County Library, the Centralia Library, Lions International and the Salvation Army.
A celebration of life is being planned for July 4.
