Jack J Smith

   Jack J. Smith, 80, of Fort White, was born Dec. 6, 1936 in Franklin, N.J., the eldest son of the late John J. and Estelle Smith.  He left this temporal world to be with his Lord on Sept. 15, 2017 at Haven Hospice in Gainesville, FL.  After a wonderful childhood growing up on a lake in northern N.J., he came south to attend the Univ. of Florida, majoring first in pharmacy, then switched to Chemistry.  One of his first jobs was with Black, Crow & Eidsness, a Gainesville engineering firm… which eventually led to his becoming a water and wastewater consultant in the environmental field.  He stayed with the company for 35 years, through two ownership changes; BC & E was acquired by Hercules, then CH2 M Hill, an international engineering company.

   At UF he met and married the love of his life, Sondra, and they had one son, James H. Smith of Gainesville.  Left to cherish his memory are Sondra and Jim, and grandson Sean T. Smith of Gainesville, now an engineering student at UF; brothers Dave Smith of Mechanicsville, VA and Bill Cook (Sharon) of Bracey, VA.; and his Aunt Jo Davis and cousin Tom Davis of Sussex, N.J.  Jack was predeceased by his youngest brother, Pete, several years ago. 

   Jack never did anything halfway, and threw himself into his hobbies as seriously as his working life.  In his career, he went from project manager to dept. manager to senior vice president of CH2M Hill and regional manager of the Florida offices.  In his spare time he enjoyed Scuba diving, kayaking, long-distance biking, golf, Gator football and was a private pilot. 
 

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