Walter David Smith

Walter David Smith, veteran and avid fisherman, died June 21, 2022 at his home in Colorado Springs. The cause was emphysema, which he fought for five years. Walt was surrounded by his family and his lifelong best friend when he died.

Walt was born August 31, 1949 to Leland and Leona Smith in Denver Colorado. He was named after an uncle who went missing in action while fighting in World War II, and shortly after he left high school, with encouragement from his parents, the younger Walt also signed up to go to war. Like many of his peers, he spent his earliest years of adulthood as a soldier in Vietnam, rising to the rank of sergeant in the Air Force. And like many of his peers, he spent the later years of his adulthood processing the impact those two tours in Pleiku had on his life, studying Vietnam, learning history, eating Vietnamese food and sometimes talking about the bad memories too.

After his first tour, Walt took two weeks to visit home and was set up on a date with Rita, a friend of a friend. He intercepted Rita, a pretty single mom who didn’t particularly like blind dates, on the steps of her apartment. “You are going to go out with me aren’t you?” he asked her. They spent those two weeks together, and then Walt spent his second tour writing Rita letters and papering the walls of his barracks with her responses. They became engaged while he was away and they married two weeks after he got back, on Aug. 5, 1972, just shy of 50 years ago.

For 33 years, as Walt and Rita raised their daughters Chrissy and Chauna, Walt worked in public service as a boiler plant engineer. He spent a decade at the Denver Federal Center and then nearly two at the United States Airforce Academy. He also joined the Army Reserve for five years, serving as a platoon commander. He was honorably discharged in 1984.

Though we try after they die, it’s impossible to sum up a whole person. So here are some flashes of Walt: striking blue eyes, cribbage with his brother Mike, golf and FBI shows on TV, Willy Nelson, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, very cheap menthols, tank tops, a beloved white pickup truck, a raspy voice.

Walt was happiest when he was fishing, and in spring and summer took every opportunity to fish at the Air Force Academy ponds after work or drive into the mountains to Roaring Judy or Williams Fork Reservoir to cast a line. Every year, Walt and Rita and his best friend Evan Williams and Evan’s wife Moni spent a week on a fishing trip. It was something Walt looked forward to all year.

Walt loved the sun, and didn’t shy away from it even at the high altitude in his home state. He was rarely seen without his bottle of iced tea or, for 17 years, his dog Buddy.

Walt is preceded in death by his parents Leland and Leona Smith, his parents-in-law Marie and Oscar Staley, sister-in-law Sandy Icke, and his brother-in-law Peter Titus. He is survived by his wife Rita Smith, his daughters Christina Affeld and Chauna Verruso, son-in-law Matt Verruso, grandchildren Tressa Richardson and her husband Conner, Connor Affeld and his wife Adrianne, and Kylie Cook, step-grandchildren Isabel and Matilda Verruso, great-grandchildren Cayden, Gentry, Archer Grace, and Stevie, sisters Wanda Titus and Marilynn Doubleday, brothers Mike Smith, Richard Connett and Robert Okamura, many cousins, nieces and nephews, and his best friend Evan Williams.

A memorial service for Walt will be held on July 15 at 3 p.m. at Rocky Mountain Cavalry Chapel, 4285 N. Academy Blvd, Colorado Springs, 80918. In honor of Walt's favorite color, please consider wearing blue jeans or something blue.