Raymond Akert Smith

He is survived by sons Chris (Anna) Smith of Las Vegas, NV and Patrick (Mary) Smith of Highlands Ranch, CO and grandchildren Morgan (Derek) Park, Allison Smith, Olivia Smith, Lucas Smith Brian Pankey and Andy Pankey. He is also survived by brother Robert Smith of Bountiful, UT. He is preceded in death by wife Priscilla Jean Smith, parents, Edwin Smith, and Ethel Smith as well as siblings, Vivian, Mary Grace, Lloyd, Stanley, John, Albert, and David.

He lived his entire childhood and teens in the family home located in Holliday, Utah which, for most of his childhood, had a dirt floor, wood/coal stove for cooking and heating as well as plumbing that relied on the same stove for heated water. They used an outhouse as a toilet. Ray reached his full height of 6’1” in 8th grade and though he only weighed 120lbs, was recruited to play football. He was once featured in the Deseret news for catching a goal scoring pass at the end of a game. By 9th grade, he dropped football for his true love, music. He loved all the popular big bands of the day such as Stan Kenton and Glenn Miller and signed up for the school band without ever having played an instrument, He initially wanted to play the Tuba but was unable to afford the $3 to purchase a mouthpiece that would allow him to use the school-owned instrument so his teacher handed him the school’s aluminum base violin and a lifelong hobby/side career was born. By the age of 16 he was playing professionally in local nightclubs such as the Rainbow Rendezvous where he was able to perform for(not with) Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington at different times when they joined the audience. He soon earned enough money to purchase a Stradivarius Bass which is now played by his one of his granddaughters.

Ray dropped out of high school to join the Navy at the tail end of WW2. His dad had served in WW1 and the recruiter assured him that he would be granted a graduation for helping with the war effort but his principle denied it because he was half a biology credit short. He never did get his diploma and always found it funny to tell people that he was a high school dropout. He served as the ship’s photographer on the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La for two years, most of which were a goodwill tour as the war had ended. He returned home and then went on to serve a 30-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Austria and Switzerland speaking German.

Upon his return from Switzerland and Austria, he enrolled in the University of Utah and by working through summers and taking a heavy course load earned his Bachelor’s Degree in just three years. He initially planned to become an engineer but didn’t enjoy all of the math classes so he changed his focus to Speech Pathology after meeting Priscilla (Jean) Parry, a child prodigy with a photographic memory who was studying to become a school teacher and was enthusiastic about that field. Jean was four years his junior but he was very taken with her and interviewed with the faculty of that department upon her recommendation. This is also where he had his first introduction to audiology which was the area of study that speech pathology was derived from.

He and Jean were married on June 10th, 1954 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple and Ray began grad school studying Speech Pathology and Psychology. His GI Bill Benefits had run out so he took jobs driving a cab and an ambulance to pay the bills which he said were not particularly profitable before music came calling again. An acquaintance from his days playing at the Rainbow Rendezvous invited him to another playing opportunity that grew into a five-year playing engagement at a new Salt Lake night club venue called the “Red Chimney”. Jean had graduated and was teaching fourth grade for the Salt Lake School district. She made friends with another district employee who met Ray and offered him a part time job doing speech therapy for the children in the school district while he completed his MA at the U of U and continued to play his bass professionally. The district was so impressed with his work that they offered him a full-time position as the Chairman of the district’s Speech Pathology and Audiology program immediately upon his graduation. He was one of the founding members of the SLSD’s program and over the course of seven years built the program to the point where they had 21 full time professional staff members, a full time secretary and they occupied an entire floor of one of the West High School’s buildings.

Ray was then approached by a couple of the district’s top officials awarding him a fellowship to complete more schooling and earn a PhD. The award supported him with full tuition, books and supplies and a living stipend at any school of his choice. They also offered Sabbatical Leave status by the School District which meant more support money would be made available and his employment and position there would be guaranteed upon his return. He and Jean had just purchased and landscaped their first home in Cottonwood Heights so this was initially a difficult decision. He was accepted at Northwestern in the Chicago area, Iowa State and the University of Washington in Seattle. After interviewing with each, he chose UW in Seattle, rented out their home and loaded a U-Haul with enough possessions to live in student housing and headed for Washington.

Unfortunately, the day before beginning school, one of the professors he had interviewed with and who had been a key reason for his picking UW suffered a heart attack and died. It was too late to change course at this point so he moved forward and this turned out to be serendipitous as the professor’s replacement was a man named Jim Shapley who was also the Chief of the Seattle VA Hospital’s Audiology & Speech Pathology Program. To make a long story short, Jim and he became lifelong friends and upon completion of his PhD, hired Ray to work for him at the VA. He never returned to Utah and though his former employers were incredibly sad to lose him, they acknowledged that this was a great opportunity that he should not pass up. He also served as a Bishop in the Married Student Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the University.

Jean had completed coursework to gain her teaching certification in WA and had received a supervisory teaching offer at Brigadoon Elementary in Federal Way, WA so they purchased a new home there and Ray commuted into his office located in the Smith Tower near Pioneer Square in Seattle, a building that had at one point been the tallest building West of the Mississippi. They had been married for nearly 20 years at this point and had been unable to have children. They signed up to be foster parents but eventually were able to adopt Chris and a few years later, Patrick. Having grown up on a farm, Ray wanted more space for his kids to grow up in so after finding a two and a half acre hobby farm nestled between a large dairy farm and a Christmas tree farm in the outskirts of the town of Enumclaw located in the foothills of Mt. Rainier, the family relocated there in 1978. Enumclaw was very Mayberryesque with trees, hills, dairies and many pastures. It was a fantastic place to raise a family but increased Ray’s commute to just under 50 miles each way. He joined a carpool and became a commuting road warrior and by the time he retired in the mid 1990’s, the drive was nearly two hours each way due to the increased population and traffic. The family was very happy there and Ray and Jean raised cattle, sheep and pigs at different times as food storage. Jean had left her teaching job when Chris was born to raise her kids but when Pat hit Junior High, she returned to work as a substitute teacher where she was highly sought after until she fell ill in 1991 and was no longer able to work. Ray was again called to serve as a Bishop of the newly formed Enumclaw 2nd Ward in 1982.

They raised their boys in Enumclaw and several years after Ray retired, they moved 60 miles north to the town of Snohomish to live with their son Chris who had settled there with his family. This was done so that Chris and his wife Anna could help care for Jean who was no longer able to care for herself and Ray needed assistance. Ray served as an adjunct professor at the University of WA for many years and a former student of his who he was close with contracted him to fly to the Anchorage area in Alaska once a month to help him fulfill all of the government contracts he had been granted to test the hearing of government workers and commercial fishermen up there. Ray loved it and would hop on an Alaska Airlines jet each month with a small bag and his fishing pole. He would work all day and fish all evening and return home with enough to stock his freezer. He was also an avid skier in UT but had stopped doing that by the time he retired. He enjoyed golfing every week with Chris and Pat for most of the 1990’s. He continued to play gigs with a band in Seattle who had gotten word of his relocation soon after he arrived and invited him to join them. Though he was an audiologist, he was ironically quite deaf himself and that grew progressively worse to the point that by the time he reached his 70’s, he was no longer able to perform any longer. He was able to enjoy watching his granddaughters grow up and be present for most of their musical performances and sporting events. By 2019, he had been diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s and he and Jean had declined in health to the point where Chris and Anna were no longer to care for them so the decision was made to relocate to the Las Vegas Area where the money allocated to care for them would go further and they could enjoy a warm environment and a comfortable facility in Henderson. Chris and Anna purchased a new home 10 miles away in the Mountain’s Edge neighborhood of Las Vegas and this is where Ray and Jean enjoyed the final year of their lives. Sadly, due to the COVID restrictions of 2020, the facility was put on lock down the week after Jean’s funeral in late February and he was not able to be with his family from that point on. He will be missed by all who knew him but particularly by his family who loved him very much and enjoyed his company. He was an incredible human being, a wonderful husband, father, friend and grandfather and a person who spent his life seeking to serve others.