Necrology
Wallace Geety Smith '64
Mar. 29, 1943-Aug. 15, 2022
Wallace Geety Smith ’64 died on Aug. 15, 2022, in Souris, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Born on March 29, 1943, in the Bronx, N.Y., he grew up there and in Darien, Conn., and came to Hamilton from Darien High School. On the Hill, Wally majored in philosophy and sang in the College Choir. For a period of time, he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, but later withdrew and became an independent. In his junior year, he made the Dean’s List.
After Hamilton, Wally attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for graduate studies in philosophy. In the course of that work, he met Barbara Joan Herbert while taking a philosophy course at Smith College in the fall of 1965.
Wally left UMass Amherst after he decided not to proceed directly to doctoral studies. During the 1966-67 academic year, he taught logic and English at a private school in the Berkshires. On June 10, 1967, Wally and Barbara were married in her hometown of Westfield, N.J. They would have three sons: Joshua, Patrick, and Jeremy.
They honeymooned by driving across the country to the Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Wash., where he taught English, Black literature, and logic. During this period he and Barbara became involved in the anti-Vietnam war movement. In 1969, they traveled to Corsica and kayaked in Yugoslavia, before returning to greenery in Scotland. Wally then took up graduate study again, this time at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. When his dissertation advisor accepted an appointment in 1972 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, he encouraged Wally to join him there.
By 1973, Wally had completed all of the coursework and comprehensive examinations but decided not to prepare a dissertation. Instead, having traveled through several of Canada’s Maritime Provinces, he and Barbara decided to settle in Prince Edward Island, where they built a home. Barbara became a market gardener while Wally got a job with two local newspapers, one daily, the other weekly, writing about the provincial government. He developed an interest in agriculture and for several years worked for the province’s Potato Marketing Board while hosting a 6 a.m. radio program focused on local agriculture.
In 1973 and 1974, they adopted two boys and, in 1978, a third son was born. In that same year, Wally was appointed information director for P.E.I.’s department of agriculture. Barbara cultivated a large garden and sold the produce locally. Both were involved in The Ark at Spry Point, an experiment in sustainable living and featuring a solar-oriented home with a large attached greenhouse containing tilapia aquaculture ponds that absorbed heat and helped fertilize the plants.
In 1979, Wally and Barbara hosted farmers from East Africa and the Caribbean attending an agricultural conference on P.E.I. Early the next year, they spent six weeks in Kenya and Tanzania with Farmers Helping Farmers. Wally documented the small farm tour for the Department of Agriculture to continue the exchange of information. That led to the family relocating to Zimbabwe in 1981, where, having become certified teachers, Wally taught English and Barbara taught mathematics in Mutambara High School in Cashel, 200 miles southeast of Harare. They transferred to Tsvingwe Secondary School for the last two years so their sons could attend school in Mutare.
Both were also involved with The Zienzelle Foundation, which assisted women and orphans with HIV/AIDS in the early stages of that epidemic. In Zimbabwe’s principal language, Shona, “zienzelle” means “self-reliance.”
In 1984, the Smiths returned to the U.S. and moved to South Strafford, Vt. It would be home for the rest of Wally’s life. There he taught English and logic in the local public school for the next two years. He also developed an exchange program with African American students in the Bronx. In 1986, he left teaching and devoted his energy to creating online discussions that advised people interested in transitioning from their current careers to teaching. He was also a website designer.
In this same period, he and Barbara began bicycling again and, starting in 1990, he led what were known as “inn-to-inn tours” for the organization Bike Vermont, later known as Discovery Bicycle Tours, which specialized in guided bike tours within their state, Canada, and Europe. They also traveled on their own to numerous countries in Central America and Cuba. Their visits to Cuba culminated in the book Bicycling Cuba: 50 Days of Detailed Rides from Havana to Oriente. On three separate occasions during 2000 and 2001 — about six months in total — they biked 8,000 miles on the island and created a series of tours that covered virtually the entire country.
Following that book’s publication, they challenged themselves to create bike tours of the three Maritime Provinces of Canada and co-authored the book Bicycling Canada’s Maritimes (2006). Their passion for biking (including the recumbent version) also led them to Mexico, New Zealand, and South Africa. When not on bikes, Wally and Barbara kayaked and traveled to Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Peru; they spent every winter in San Agustinillo, Mexico.
Back in Strafford, Wally and Barbara helped create in 2014 what came to be known as the Strafford Edible Pocket Park. Presided over by the two of them until 2021, the park by the Ompompanoosuc River has fruit trees, nut and berry bushes, flowers, picnic tables, and benches. For their work, the Smiths were awarded the 2018 Vermont Tree Steward Award by the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program.
The late Professor Sidney Wertimer is often quoted as saying, “Hamilton College trains you for nothing and prepares you for everything.” Wally summed up the College’s impact on his life in his 40th reunion yearbook by validating Wertimer’s assertion: “They told us that a liberal education would help us to adapt to changing circumstances and opportunities. Over the years, I’ve been able to teach, work as a newspaper reporter and radio commentator, pose as an agricultural expert, design websites, and write books. It would have been difficult to try my hand at so many things without the kind of education that Hamilton provided.”
Wallace G. Smith is survived by his wife, two sons, and three grandchildren. He was predeceased by his third son, Jeremy.
