Russell Gordon Smith ’43

Russell Gordon Smith ’43 died November 6, 2009, in Newport Beach, California. Before entering Dartmouth Russ graduated from the Marin (California) School, where he was president of the student body, an honor student and won letters in football, track and tennis. At Dartmouth Russ majored in economics, joined Kappa Sigma Epsilon and was a member of several teams: swimming/diving, tennis, track and field/cross country. He left college in 1941 to join the Army, serving in the Pacific as a captain in the infantry. After the war he returned to Dartmouth and graduated in 1948. Russ then became involved in beef cattle and horse ranching. At the peak of that activity he operated more than 30,000 acres in San Benito County, California, and a larger ranch in Nevada. During that time he served as a director and president of several quarter horse, cattlemen and rodeo associations. He was also a director of the California Valley Bank. His whole family engaged in horse sports from shows to racing at major California tracks. He eventually became involved with the sale of some ranches, which led him to form a company that handled ranch sales, operating in California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. Russ’ brother Douglas graduated from Dartmouth in 1950 and Douglas’ son Douglas Jr. in 1976. Russ married Mary Ward in the late 1940s and they had three children. They were divorced 30 years later and he subsequently married Marie Tuck, who had two daughters. Marie survives him, as do his five children and 12 grandchildren.