Gerald Smith Obituary

Gerald Lee Smith, age 85, died at Memorial Hospital Wednesday evening after a four-plus month struggle to recover from gall bladder surgery. Mr. Smith was born July 6, 1921 in Durango to Mr. Lloyd P. Smith and the former Miss Thelma Lewis. The Smiths moved to Pueblo with son Gerald about six months later. He was graduated from Central High School of Pueblo in 1938 and worked at the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company before the call to the U.S. Army during World War II. He successfully completed training as a laboratory technician at Fitzsimmons Hospital in Denver and, for combat in the European Theater, he became a medical corpsman. As a medical corpsman -- armed with only a pair of scissors as he tended the wounded -- he was captured at gunpoint by Nazi soldiers. In six months of captivity, he endured being thrown onto an asphalt grinder by a Nazi officer who unsuccessfully sought information, 10 days of solitary confinement on a bread and water ration and a 57-mile forced march in mud and snow to another stalag. He was honorably discharged from the Army as a staff sergeant on Jan. 13, 1946. He returned to the C.F.&I., where he worked as a metallurgical observer before beginning an 18-year career as a life underwriter in Pueblo and mostly in West Central Texas. He retired from a 19-year U.S. Civil Service career as a commissary stocker at Peterson Air Force Base in June of 1986. He distinguished himself as a 60-year-plus Mason -- being raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in Pueblo Lodge No. 17 of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons May 29, 1946. Appointed lodge chaplain, he moved to San Angelo, TX, before he could serve in this office. He affiliated with San Angelo Lodge No. 570, A.F. & A.M., and later re-affiliated with Pueblo 17. Shortly, before his son, Ronald L. was elected worshipful master of Colorado Springs Lodge No. 76, A.F. & A.M., he affiliated with his son's mother lodge -- there serving as installed chaplain in 1990, 1991 and 1992. For 13 years he chaired the lodge's posting (instructional) committee and at age 82 earned a C Proficiency Card from the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Colorado, A.F & A.M., for successfully reciting by memory both questions and answers for a candidate's proficiency on all three symbolic lodge degrees. He became a 32nd Degree Mason -- Master of the Royal Secret -- at the fall 1991 reunion on Nov. 2 for the Valley of Pueblo, Orient of Colorado, of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Free-masonry. In 1997 he served the valley as wise master of the Chapter of Rose Croix. His service earned him Southern Colorado 500 Club membership. After these Scottish Rite bodies moved to the Colorado Springs Masonic Center in 1998, he served as tiler for eight consecutive years until his death. On December 13, 1991, he crossed the hot sands of Al Kaly Shrine, Desert of Pueblo, as he became a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Nobles of the Shrine. He bowled on a first place and a second place team in the Al Kaly Shrine Traveling League. "Daddy only physically disciplined me once from childhood through my teenage years; that was when I was 2 years old, and he cried when he did it," his son, Ronald Lee, recalled. "From that point, he disciplined me with a firm voice and by asking me if I thought what I did was right?" He was baptized in Lake Avenue Baptist Church in Pueblo and sprinkled in Angelo Heights Methodist Church in San Angelo. As a Methodist, he gave devotionals and substitute taught the intermediate (teen-aged) class. He and his surviving widow, the former Miss Mary Elizabeth Coy were married 60 years. They wed Sept 9, 1946, at the First American Baptist Church in Colorado Springs. Also surviving are brother Lloyd L. Smith and sister-in-law Sharon Smith, both of Pueblo, sister Mary Alice Showalter and brother-in-law Ronald Showalter of Albuquerque, NM plus nephews Daniel and David Smith, both of Pueblo; Ronald of Loveland, William of Albuquerque and Gregory Showalter of Phoenix, AZ, and niece Martha Henderson of Canon City.