Edith M. Smith
April 3, 1925-Oct. 11, 2011
Palo Alto, California

Edith M. Smith was born on April 3, 1925, to Ann and Arthur MacNamara. She was premature in her arrival, which was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle because she was rushed by taxi to the first incubator in the region.

She grew up in Oakland where she rode bikes everywhere with her beloved Leland Smith, whom she met when she was 11. She was athletic and worked as a lifeguard in the summers.

During the war, she volunteered at a hospital and helped harvest crops. She participated in vocal and instrumental groups throughout her life, including performances with the orchestras at Berkeley and Stanford.

Edith attended UC Berkeley where she excelled and became the class president her junior year, and was selected to work as an usher in 1945 at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco. After she got her bachelor's degree, she continued at Berkeley to get her master's degree in Art and was hired as a full-time art instructor in 1947.

After the war, she married Leland and they traveled in Europe on Moped motor bikes, even riding over the Alps in a blizzard, and socialized with artists and musicians in Paris. She was a prolific artist who excelled in several mediums. She painted with oil, acrylic, and watercolor. She exhibited in museums in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, and participated in shows around the Bay Area, and in New York, Paris, Beijing and Tokyo. She lectured around the world, including the Pratt Institute in New York, Ohio State, and in France, China and Australia. In the early 1950s, she had three children, Stefanie, Clement and Teresa, and moved to Palo Alto when her husband Leland took a job as Professor of Music Composition at Stanford University.

During the 1960s, she supported the Peace and Women's Movements and was a founding member of Peninsula Artists for Peace. She was also an active member of the League of Women Voters, the California Society of Printmakers, and the Woman's Caucus for Art, receiving their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

She studied under the Master Engraver, Calvert Brun, in Paris and created an Etching and Printmaking class at Foothill College, where she taught art for over 20 years. Some of her art work is posted at http://www.ems-art.com/ .

She also loved animals; she took in stray cats and worked with her neighbors to develop a community-supported program to provide food and shelter for the donkeys at Bol Park. She was a great inspiration to her students, her children, and her grandchildren.

Edith died peacefully at home in her sleep on Oct. 11, 2011, and is survived by her husband, children and other family members.

A memorial service will be held in the Chapel at St. Mark's Church, 600 Colorado Ave., Palo Alto, where she was a parishioner and choir member, and where she had her last art show in the Parish Hall. (Please contact the family via the button above.)

Tags: arts/media, teacher/educator