Capt. Esmond Douglas Smith, Jr. US Navy ret.

Captain Esmond D. “Doug” Smith, Jr., US Navy retired, has set sail on his final voyage after a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his beloved wife and best friend, Nanci, son, Timothy Smith of Norfolk, Virginia, daughter, Stephanie Smith of Virginia Beach, Virginia, stepdaughters, Jennifer Nelson of Portsmouth, RI and Jessica Nelson Driscoll of Bristol, RI, his brother, Ron Smith of Stratford, CT, three grandsons, Brendan Doyle of Stratham, New Hampshire, Orion Driscoll of Bristol, RI and Barry Smith of Norfolk, Virginia and Kona, his Therapy Dog.

Captain Smith graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1963, joined the Navy and was commissioned an Ensign at Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI in 1964. After tours on two Ocean Minesweepers, which included several Market Time Patrols off the coast of Vietnam, he was transferred to the headquarters of CINCUSNAVEUR in London where he became a Naval Intelligence officer. Subsequent tours of duty included Assistant Naval Attaché in Taiwan, and Executive Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence in Washington. He attended the senior class of the Naval Intelligence in Washington. He attended the senior class of the Naval War College in Newport in 1982 and spent the next two years in the College’s War Gaming Center, before being selected for command of the Fleet Ocean Surveillance Information Facility (FOSIF), Western Pacific, in Kamiseya, Japan. He finished his Navy career as the Edward Layton intelligence chair at the Navy War College in Newport, RI.

Following his Navy retirement in 1993, he received a PhD in Humanities from Salve Regina University and began teaching in the MBA program at Johnson & Wales University Graduate School in Providence, becoming the Director of the International Business Program before his retirement from the school in 2006.

Since then, he has been active in his local community of Portsmouth, RI, chairing the Steering Committee for Portsmouth’s 375th anniversary of Portsmouth’s Founding in 1638 and hosting over 200 weekly public access TV programs entitled “Portsmouth This Week”, as well as being active in the Portsmouth Historical Society as Vice President and on the Board of Directors.

Arrangements are in the care of the Wilbur-Romano Funeral Home, Warren, RI. For information and condolences, www.wilbur-romano.com