Carol Ann Smith

COLUMBIA - Carol Ann Smith died at her home in Columbia on March 16, 2023, sixty days after the onset of an aggressive kidney disorder. This news will undoubtedly shock her many friends and acquaintances who until as recently as early January knew her as an unusually healthy and youthful 77-year-old.

Carol was born on February 17, 1945 to Theodore Roosevelt and Caroline Bundy Reid in Flint, Michigan where her father, a career accountant for GMAC in Oklahoma, was temporarily assigned to the GM plant that was building tanks for the war effort. Carol grew up in Oklahoma City, attended public schools there, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a B. A. in Letters with Highest Honors in 1966. She was then awarded two prestigious fellowships for graduate study of English literature at Cornell University where she completed her M.A. degree in 1968.

In 1967 she married Michael Stephen (Mike) Smith, her high school boyfriend and fellow student at OU and Cornell. They spent the academic year 1968-69 in Paris where Mike conducted research for his doctoral dissertation on modern French history while Carol worked in the Paris offices of the IBM World Trade Corporation. This proved to be a seminal experience that imbued both of them with an abiding interest in all aspects of French culture, a special love for the French countryside, and a zest for travel throughout Europe. The year in Paris also gave Carol an introduction to French food and cooking that contributed greatly to making her the fine cook and hostess she later became.

In 1970 Carol and Mike moved to Saint Louis, Missouri where Mike began his teaching career in the history department of Saint Louis University and where Carol gave birth to their daughter, Laura Jeanette. In 1973, they relocated to Columbia when Mike was appointed assistant professor of European history at USC (where he remained the rest of his career, retiring as Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2008). It was also at USC that Carol really began her professional career, first as an assistant to the chairman of the Geology Department for two years before she joined the newly created School of Medicine in 1976 as one of its earliest staff employees, serving as assistant to the Dean. She remained in the School of Medicine for the next 27 years working with five deans in various capacities but mainly as the school’s first Director of Public Affairs.

Of the many and varied assignments she took on as Director of Public Affairs, three stood out as particularly important to her. First of all, in the early 1980s she created and thereafter served continuously as editor and chief writer of the school’s quarterly magazine “South Carolina Medicine” and the Annual Reports of the School of Medicine. Today these publications still serve as important sources on the early history of the School of Medicine.

A second major accomplishment was her organization of a convocation on the USC Horseshoe to honor the first graduating class in 1981. This proved so successful that it became a permanent event attached to the University’s spring commencement, and Carol continued to organize and direct these convocations until 2005. A third less visible innovation was the creation of a system to keep track of the whereabouts of all USC M.D.s after they graduated. This information was particularly useful in demonstrating to the state legislature and to accrediting agencies that the school was fulfilling its mandate to train primary care physicians to serve the underserved areas of the state. The tracking project was just part of Carol’s larger commitment to knowing about and publicizing the accomplishments of all the school’s alums. This routinely involved her traveling throughout the state to interview them for profiles in “South Carolina Medicine.” In recognition of these efforts, she was awarded an Honorary Life Membership in the School of Medicine Alumni Association in 2016, one of several awards and honors bestowed on her for her years of service to the school.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the time and effort Carol devoted to her job was more than matched by the time and energy she devoted to raising and caring for her daughter. While Laura had a normal, happy childhood, her adolescence and adulthood were marred by a growing number of developmental and medical problems, including the onset of previously undiagnosed high functioning autism and the emergence of congenital heart defects. While Carol and Mike made great efforts to give her as normal a life as possible, which included working as members of the South Carolina Autism Society to secure greater services for adults with autism, Laura eventually succumbed to heart failure at age 33 in 2003. This remained for them the great tragedy of their fifty-five years of married life.

Working on autism issues was but one volunteer activity that Carol took on before and after her retirement in 2003. Among these was serving a term as president of the USC chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, serving on the Task Force on Programs for Handicapped Students in Richland School District One, and serving on the Board of Directors of the USC Credit Union and most recently on the School of Medicine Dean’s Executive Advisory Council. For twelve years after her retirement she also devoted each Monday to volunteering at the Free Medical Clinic in Columbia, helping to screen people for their eligibility for services. At the same time, retirement also brought increased opportunities for Carol and Mike to travel, and after 2004 they enjoyed more extended stays in Paris and the South of France, river cruises on the Danube and Rhine, and voyages on the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, until the pandemic curtailed these activities in 2020. So, when viewed in its totality, most people would probably agree that Carol had a full and meaningful life.

Carol’s parents predeceased her as did her daughter. She is survived by her husband Mike in Columbia; by her brother-in-law Charles Smith and nephews Stephen Smith (Danelle) and Michael Smith (Amanda), all living in the Dallas Texas area; and by seven first cousins and their families scattered throughout the United States.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate contributions in Carol’s memory to the Laura J. Smith Medical Scholarship Endowment at the USC Educational Foundation or to the Laura Smith Fund at the Riverbanks Zoo or to a charity of one’s choice.

A Celebration of Carol’s Life will be held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, with a reception to follow the service at the funeral home.

Memories may be shared at www.dunbarfunerals.com.