Kenneth Leroy Smith
February 1, 1920 – September 28, 2003
He lived a lot like the guest in the parable who took the lower seat at the banquet, only he was more like a guest who had built the table, brought half the meal, and then still took the lower seat. He hardly ever claimed anything for himself, yet he was always busy improving things for those around him. He had a childhood of care and hard work and wanted to build a life for his children which was free of those same cares.
He was a mechanic and carpenter, the self-taught master of many trades, small and large. He was a restorer of things to beauty and working order. He was an upholsterer and leather-worker. In any situation, he could become the craftsman for which the occasion called. Long ago and far away, he took scrapheap parts and re-built a whole plane that flew the Mediterranean a hundred times.
From his hands, other people’s discards came back to life, sometimes in a completely new and remarkable form. Whenever he met an object that needed improvement, a machine that needed fixing, or a problem that needed solving, he had found his mission.
He believed, with the sages, that he did not need to speak unless he could improve on silence. He was gracious and un-self-regarding, wanting to live a life whose balance sheet clearly showed more given than taken. He took joy in the joy of others. He accepted others for what they were and did not ask them to change. He built with the materials he had at hand.
He was that gift of patience and loving-kindness.
He was that sweet, unique life in all eternity.
He was, in the words of the scriptures:
“…capable, upright, & straightforward,
easy to instruct, gentle, & not conceited,
content & easy to support,
with few duties, living lightly,
with peaceful faculties, masterful,
modest, & without greed…”