Mac Emory Smith

The Boy Electrician, Mac E. Smith, passed away Wednesday evening, September 19th in Hanford, California. Mac was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 26, 1942, the third of four children of Emory & Verland Smith, sheep ranchers in the Deep Creek area of the Uinta Mountains of Utah.

Mac grew up on the sheep ranch during his summers and in Salt Lake City during the school year. He graduated from East High in 1960 and later attended Utah State University where he made fond memories during his years in the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

After graduating from college with a degree in finance, Mac began his career as a loan officer with Production Credit Association (later known as Farm Credit West) which eventually brought him and his wife, Mary, to California. During his 35+ year-long career with PCA, Mac worked in Oakland, San Luis Obispo, Visalia, Sacramento, and Hanford where he made lifelong friends with his colleagues and with many of the farmers he helped finance.

Throughout life, Mac maintained a strong work ethic which he learned working on his family’s ranch. When he wasn’t at the office, he loved to be at home taking care of the yard, working in his woodshop, or fixing and improving things around the house.

Mac also loved to work in the kitchen. No recipe was ever too complicated for him or too tedious but he will always be remembered for Sunday nights when he could be found barbequing tri tip, seasoned with Raven’s Seasoning Salt.

Over the years, Mac found time to delve into his hobbies including electrical wiring (in his boyhood no less), disconnecting things and putting them back together (which he imparted on his younger brother Lee), model railroading, model steam engine-making, fine woodworking, and fine cooking.

Still more vast than Mac’s hobbies were his interests which included ‘whodunits’ featuring Jessica Fletcher, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and of course Sherlock Homes; classic movies like Casablanca, The African Queen, and the Maltese Falcon; old-time radio mysteries; and “cheese management” which he was always eager to share with anyone who was curious, and surely even some who weren’t.

Mac will be remembered for many remarkable “skills” by his friends and family – he could take an old radio apart and put it back together, he could clandestinely wire sound into homes to enjoy neighboring drive-in theatre movies; he could fix anything mechanical; he could build finely detailed cabinets.

Through it all, in sickness and in health, Mac could be depended on for his generous support of his family and others in need; to keep his sense of humor; to make a hell of a drink; to run the kids’ carpool; and for his annual car trips to the ranch in Utah; Flathead Lake, Montana; Sun Valley, Idaho; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and to be accompanied by his sidekick through sixteen fun-filled years of retirement, his puppy Maggie.

Mac is survived by his wife of fifty years, Mary Nielson Smith of Hanford, his son Micah and wife Mohini “Rani” Smith of San Luis Obispo, CA and his daughter Megan and husband Roy Taylor of Salt Lake City, UT and his grandchildren Harper and Sam Taylor.

In lieu of flowers, condolences may be sent to one of Mac’s favorite charities – the Salvation Army of Hanford or Kings Art Center of Hanford or to the American Red Cross.

A Celebration of Mac’s Life will be held on Thursday, October 11th at 11:00 a.m. at Kings Country Club; 3529 12th Ave., Hanford, CA 93230.

Family and Friends are invited to view Mac’s life at www.peoplesfuneralchapel.com and send condolences to the family.

Services by People’s Funeral Chapel 559-584-5591.