Edward R Smith

Smith graduated as valedictorian of his Flora High School class in 1950, before moving with his family to Wichita Falls, Texas where he promptly met and fell in love with Jo Anne Myers as she turned sixteen.

They married September 10, 1954.

Smith graduated from Midwestern University in 1953 and from SMU Law School in 1957. Drafted during the Korean conflict, following infantry basic at Fort Bliss he served the remainder of his two-year, school-shortened enlistment with the Army Audit Agency in Los Angeles. He was licensed a CPA in 1955 while in the army.

He practiced law in Houston with Vinson Elkins, Weems and Searls, 1957 to 1959 and with Nelson, McCleskey and Harriger in Lubbock from early 1959 till he opened his own law office in early 1961. Joined by Norton Baker August 31, 1962, eventually practicing as the firm Smith, Baker, Field and Clifford until his retirement from law practice August 31, 1984. Following a near death experience in August 1963, he purchased Resthaven cemetery, adding the funeral home in 1964, until all was sold in 1993.

Smith served as organizing counsel and director of Briercroft Savings & Loan Association, member and chairman of the Lubbock Planning & Zoning Board, budget committee of the United Way, board member of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, member and chairman of both the Texas Tech Foundation and the Texas Tech Medical School Foundation, member of the Chancellor’s Council and Red Raider Club, and various other community activities.

An early member of the West Texas Running Club, in 1979 Smith ran the Boston Marathon (number X332). In March, 1982 he played Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto with an orchestra composed of faculty and advanced students at Texas Tech to dedicate the Steinway concert grand piano he and Jo Anne gave for Tech’s Hemmle Recital Hall. He continued performing locally until 1984 and hundreds of friends and acquaintances have enjoyed the recordings of these events.

From Easter 1963 till Easter 1988, he taught the Cornerstone couple’s class at First United Methodist Church. Discovering, in 1989, and then studying, the vast works of the seer Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Smith published five major titles on esoteric Christianity based thereon, as well as his autobiography, all of which can be found at Amazon under his full name.

Lake City, Colorado, in the midst of the San Juan Mountain Range, was the warm weather Mecca for the Smiths from 1960 till 2007 when, as he said, the magnificent peaks and hiking trails were becoming steeper, and they gave the home they had owned for twenty years to their children. Due to the present pandemic no services are planned at this time the, family will gather next summer in the mountains.

Smith is survived by his wife Jo Anne, three children and their spouses, sons Mark E. Smith and wife, Jill, of Wilmington, DE; Michael R. Smith and wife, Stacey, of Colleyville, and daughter Jillian M. Rauh and husband, Donald, both doctors, of Newtown, PA. Also surviving them are ten grandchildren, fifteen great grandchildren, sister Mary Anne Ayers and husband, Ronald, of Flora, IL, and four nephews and nieces and their children.

The family suggests memorials to “The Edward R. & Jo Anne M. Smith Endowment Fund for Music,” c/o Texas Tech University System for Institutional Advancement, P. O. Box 41081, Lubbock, TX 79409-1081; South Plains Food Bank, 5605 MLK Blvd, Lubbock, TX 79404; Carillon Foundation; 1717 Norfolk, Lubbock, TX 79416; or to a favorite charity.

Online condolences may be offered on our website