I was saddened to hear of the passing of classmate Gene Smith. I had left a note to him last year on this site about the life and death of one of our female grade school classmates and wondered why I never heard back from him.
We were in nursery school together. I have a photo of the class with Santa Claus and we are standing next to each other. Our female teachers drove a 'woody' station wagon.
We were also in grade school together in Ferguson and his mother was our 3rd grade teacher. We lived only a few blocks apart and he lived next door to Carl Hoppe '61 and was part of our Ferguson car pool for a year or two until his family moved closer to Washington U.
I've long regretted the unpleasant action of some of our classmates senior year to cut off part of his hair. I wish I had been mature enough to have interfered or stopped that - surely an unnecessary trauma and negative remembrance of his days at CDS.
I visited Gene for a day at his home in Gonzales, Texas in 1993 when I was at a meeting in Austin. He toured me through the area and I saw his extensive collection of antique clocks. He had two grown children and was in his second marriage. They were planning to open a b & b and use his old antique Packard as a limo for their customers. We kept in touch for a few years after that.
Gene got his PhD in Archaeology from St. Louis U. but never practiced in that field. He had been a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in History at Westminster College. One of his history professors, Bill Parish, ended up near us here at Mississippi State University and remembered Gene as one of the very best students he had in his career.
Bob Karn
We learned from Tom Drake through his search on the internet that Gene passed away on 5/21/11. We have no details at this time.
Bill Parker
I was saddened to hear of the passing of classmate Gene Smith. I had left a note to him last year on this site about the life and death of one of our female grade school classmates and wondered why I never heard back from him.
We were in nursery school together. I have a photo of the class with Santa Claus and we are standing next to each other. Our female teachers drove a 'woody' station wagon.
We were also in grade school together in Ferguson and his mother was our 3rd grade teacher. We lived only a few blocks apart and he lived next door to Carl Hoppe '61 and was part of our Ferguson car pool for a year or two until his family moved closer to Washington U.
I've long regretted the unpleasant action of some of our classmates senior year to cut off part of his hair. I wish I had been mature enough to have interfered or stopped that - surely an unnecessary trauma and negative remembrance of his days at CDS.
I visited Gene for a day at his home in Gonzales, Texas in 1993 when I was at a meeting in Austin. He toured me through the area and I saw his extensive collection of antique clocks. He had two grown children and was in his second marriage. They were planning to open a b & b and use his old antique Packard as a limo for their customers. We kept in touch for a few years after that.
Gene got his PhD in Archaeology from St. Louis U. but never practiced in that field. He had been a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in History at Westminster College. One of his history professors, Bill Parish, ended up near us here at Mississippi State University and remembered Gene as one of the very best students he had in his career.
Bill Parker
bparker@muw.edu