Robert Smith

Robert Charles Smith, age 94, of Sheffield Village, Ohio, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 30, 1923 to Henry C. and Marion L. Smith. There he attended Langley High School. He graduated from The Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) with a BFA in music, majoring in violin and viola, in 1949, and then in 1950 with a BFA in Music Education and an MFA in Musicology. He also studied architecture at Carnegie Tech.

He served as a pilot and Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II, flying DC-3s and other cargo planes over the U.S.

During the 1950s he taught high school music in Mansfield, Ohio and was also a successful choral director in the U.S. and Canada, as well as a theater director.

From 1959 until 1969 he worked as a computer expert for IBM and then as a computer security expert for the U.S. Defense Department for the next three decades until his retirement.

Beginning in the mid 1970s he played in the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra as a violinist and sometimes principal violist until the early 2000s. He was the also the leader of the Robert Smith Trio from 1977 until his death.

He was married to his first wife, Jean Allene Mueller Smith, who he met in college until 1969. They had a son, Scott Allan Smith, in 1956. In 1977 he married his second wife, Maryel Vogel Smith and remained married to her until her death in 2013.

During the 1970s he served with the Boy Scouts of America, including as Scoutmaster of Troop 761 of North Olmsted, Ohio.

Beginning in 1959 he lived in Fairview Park, Ohio and then beginning in 1977 in Cleveland Heights, until moving to Sheffield Lake after retiring from the Defense Department.

He was preceded in death by his second wife, his parents, his sister, Dorothy S. Smedley, and his stepson, John P. Hardy.

He is survived by his son, Dr. Scott Allan Smith; his nephews, Ronald H. Smedley (Ronald Smedley, Jr.) and William Flaherty; his niece, Dorothy Ruth Smedley Klein (Steve); his step son, Henry E. Hardy; and his stepdaughter, Martha E. Hardy.

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers that those who wish may make contributions in his name to Friends of the National WWII Memorial, ( www.WWIImemorialfriends.org ), 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Suite 316, Washington, DC 20003 or to Church of the Covenant, 11205 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106 where Memorial Services will be held on Monday, July 17 at 11 AM in the Chapel.