McClain B. "Mac" Smith, Jr., former manager of Camp Filibert Roth and a School of Natural Resources and Environment alumnus, died Oct. 29. He was 86.

A memorial service for Mr. Smith is Monday, Nov. 24, at 7:30 p.m. The service is in the sanctuary of West Side United Methodist Church, 900 S. Seventh St., Ann Arbor.

Mr. Smith is remembered fondly as both camp manager and lecturer at Camp Roth, an educational and training facility SNRE used to own and maintain near Iron River, Mich. There, SNRE students were taught many facets of practical forestry. Mr. Smith accepted the post shortly after earning his Ph.D. in Natural Resources in 1980 from SNRE.

For the last 18 years of his working career, Mr. Smith was the executive director of the Michigan Forest Association, a position he was greatly devoted to and dearly loved. Mr. Smith retired from his MFA role in 2007 because of his failing health.

Mr. Smith was born April 24, 1922, and grew up in Washington, D.C., and Washington Grove, Md. There he dreamed of swinging through the trees like Tarzan and never touching the ground again, according to his family. Thus began the love of trees that foretold of his later fulfilling career.

After obtaining an undergraduate degree at Pennsylvania State University in 1943, he enlisted in the Army and traveled abroad. Upon his return, he enrolled at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources, where he received a master's degree in 1949. (Here, he met and married Kathryn Marie Randolph of Ann Arbor, who preceded him in death.)

After graduation, Mr. Smith worked in Maryland, Mississippi and Louisiana - first for the U.S. Forest Service and then as a logger. He spent nine years with the U.S. Forest Service, including three and a half years as district ranger on Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana.  He returned to Ann Arbor to work in a family business, L.G. Randolph Concrete Products. He continued to work there until 1975, a year after the family sold it.

Shortly after the sale, Mr. Smith began contemplating returning to school to earn a doctorate, which led him to enroll again at SNRE.

Memorial donations may be sent to the McClain B. Smith, Jr. Scholarship Fund in care of Michigan Forest Foundation, 6120 S. Clinton Trail, Eaton Rapids, Mich.  48827. (Checks should be written to the Michigan Forest Foundation with a notation for the M.B. Smith scholarship.)

For more information, contact

Kevin Merrill
Director of Communications
merrillk@umich.edu
O: 734.936.2447
C: 734.417.7392