Obituaries
Jellison Funeral Home
Peterborough, New Hampshire
William Lehman Smith
Bennington, New Hampshire - William Lehman "Lee" Smith, 87, died on November 30, 2011, at Monadnock Community Hospital after a period of failing health.Mr. Smith was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1924, the son of Laura (Lehman) and George Verner Smith. He attended local schools in Chester and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps after graduation. During World War II, he was a staff sergeant with the Air Corps' weather service in Rapid City, South Dakota, and was also stationed with the military's weather service in Brazil, serving in Natal and Rio de Janeiro.After leaving military service, he enrolled at Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1950 with a degree in political science and history. He was a member of the Ravens Claw and the ODK, both honorary and scholastic leadership fraternities, and Alpha Chi Rho.He earned his master's degree in political science in 1951 from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., and also studied in Mexico City and worked in Washington, D.C. Lee married Jean Leonard Terani of Groton, Connecticut, in 1954, and the couple soon began a series of overseas assignments. After a short internship with the Department of the Army, he began service with the Department of State. During his career with the U.S. Foreign Service he had two tours of duty in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and one tour each in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and Sao Paul, Brazil, LaPaz, Bolivia, and Montevideo, Uruguay. He retired from the Department of State in 1986 and served as a consultant to that agency until he and his wife moved to New Hampshire in 1992 to be near their eldest daughter and grandchildren.Music was one of Lee's lifelong passions. He was a violinist in his high school and college orchestras and a member of the school chorus. During his years with the foreign service, he was a member of several choral and vocal groups and served as a choral director for the Methodist church in LaPaz, Bolivia, and as a conductor of a men's chorus. He was interim choir director at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Herndon, Virginia, and sang with the Monadnock Chorus after moving to New Hampshire.Throughout his life, he was an avid reader and a great golfer who played for leisure and in tournaments until blindness kept him off the course. He was also a very knowledgeable baseball fan and in his retirement closely followed the Boston Red Sox.He served as a volunteer at the GEP Dodge Library in Bennington.He was predeceased by his wife Jean in 2007. He is survived by two daughters, Leslie MacGregor of Bennington, and Laurie Short of Manassas, Virginia; a son, Blair Smith of Clifton Park, New York; eight grandchildren, including Sarah Brown Vanderhoof of Lyndeborough, Jessica Brown of Bennington, Dana MacGregor of Exeter, U.K., Ryan MacGregor of Melrose, Mass., and two great-grandchildren.Services will be held on December 23, 2011, at All Saints Church, Peterborough, New Hampshire; Reverend Adrian Robbins-Cole, Rector, will officiate. Interment will be in the spring in Groton, Connecticut.In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the building fund for the GEP Dodge Library, Bennington, NH 03442 or to the McGreal Sight Center, New Hampshire Association for the Blind, 25 Walker Street, Concord, NH 03301.Jellison Funeral Home, Peterborough, New Hampshire, is assisting the family with the arrangements. For an online guestbook, please go to www.jellisonfuneralhome.com.
