Four Children (three living) Three Grandchildren

After high school and a couple of years of business college I joined the Navy and was stationed in Japan and Hawaii for a couple of years. Following my discharge I worked for the Bureau of Land Management where I surveyed in Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Alaska over four summers while attending BYU.  In 1963 I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and in1965 Master’s degree from BYU.

In 1963 I married Anita Jones from Lethbridge Alberta and after two years in Utah we moved to Escondido CA then to Calgary, Alberta in 1967.  Within a few years I opened the geotechnical engineering firm of J. A. Smith & Associates Ltd.  This consulting engineering firm has been my life’s work for the past thirty-four years.  Now I would like to retire but am having a hard time closing the doors. There are still fifteen employees and our eldest son Jared would like to carry on the business but still seems to require my direction.  As such I continue working full days, looking forward to three to four months off in the winter when business is slower.

My wife Anita and I have raised two girls and two boys. Our eldest daughter was killed in a car crash caused by a drunken driver twenty years ago when she was nineteen years old. A sorrow we wouldn’t wish on anyone! Our other three children and grandchildren all live here in Calgary which is why I have a hard time enticing Anita to move back where my roots are in Utah County.

I’ve managed to keep the family farm and so still have the old homestead should we ever return. Thinking on things I wish I had done, I guess I should have bought up all the scrub land on the east bench when it was a dollar an acre.

Over the years we’ve remained active in the LDS Church and I am currently teaching a couple of the High Priest’s Quorum lessons a month. It is a duty I enjoy.

Our family has enjoyed camping throughout the American west with the kids and more recently with just Anita. For the past three years we’ve been "Snowbirds", pulling our fifth wheel to the Arizona desert to boondock and escape the coldest winter months up here. We’ve also enjoyed being part of caravans to Baja and Mexico. While in Arizona I learned the art of gold panning and with very little encouragement could become a full timer, though I probably work for about five cents an hour or less. This spring Anita and I celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary.

Some of the other interests I continue to pursue include oil painting and most recently trying to learn the guitar. Learning Spanish was a hope, accompanied by some night classes, however I will probably never be conversant.

We may make it to the reunion but it will have to be a last minute decision depending upon the work load up here.  If we don’t make it we hope a good time is had by all.  If anyone wishes to come to the Calgary Stampede or any of the other attractions in and around the beautiful city of Calgary we would be happy to play host to any of the class of ‘53.

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