Walter Kennedy Smith II

Walter (“Wally”) Kennedy Smith II, born January 20, 1930, passed away on June 27, 2023 at the age of 93 after a fantastic life that included 67 years of marriage to Patricia Killian Smith; fathering eight children; service in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War; the establishment of three successful food brokerage businesses for whom he worked until the age of 90; and extensive travel and gardening.

Wally was born in Queens, New York, as the third child of Walter K. Smith I and Marie Schroeder. At the age of two, the Smith family moved to Chicago, where Wally spent the bulk of his childhood with older siblings Francis and Robert and younger sister Marcie. After growing up during the Great Depression, Wally considered becoming a farmer, and throughout his teen years raised Leghorn chickens and rabbits at the family home. At the age of 15, Wally lost his brother Robert, who was killed during the Battle of the Bulge as a U.S. Army medic.

In high school, Wally ran cross country and played football, even though 6’3” tall and weighing just 105 pounds. He also worked at the Chicago Northwestern Railroad laying railroad tracks and at Lake Michigan’s recreational beach facilities. Although Wally had not initially planned to attend college, he enrolled in Marquette University as a part of the ROTC program in 1948. Wally met Patricia at Marquette while serving as a bus boy in her dining hall. Their first date was to share a Coke.

After the initiation of the Korean War in 1950, and following his graduation from Marquette with a degree in business administration in 1952, Wally began service in the U.S. Navy, serving principally on board to U.S.S. Skagit AKA-105 in the Pacific Ocean off Korea and Japan. As Wally often later jokingly remarked, he sailed between “tedium and boredom.” At the tail end of his Naval service, Wally and Patty moved to Washington, D.C., where Wally worked for the Office of Naval Research. Wally was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1955 as Lieutenant Junior Grade, shortly after the birth of his first child, Ann, at Bethesda Naval hospital in April 1955.

Later in 1955, Wally and Patty moved to Patty’s hometown of Denver, Colorado. For a time, Wally worked as a salesman for Boyle-Midway, a maker of household cleaning products, with responsibility for sales in several Western states that required frequent travel across the West. In the mid-1960s, however, and characteristic of his independent streak, Wally founded his own food brokerage company, Smith-Hubbard with business partner Floyd (“Bud”) Hubbard, which continued for approximately 40 years and at its peak employed 30 individuals. Wally later started two additional brokerage companies, Pioneer Brokerage, and Wally Smith Brokerage, before finally retiring from his brokerage work in January 2020 at the age of 90.

When asked to identify the highlight of his life, he said that it was “marrying Patty.” Highlights also included his children and grandchildren, and vacationing with his children on the beaches of San Diego and Carlsbad, which he described as the happiest time in his life. Wally loved to garden and travel and was a voracious reader of novels, biographies, and periodicals. Wally also loved grocery and membership stores such as Costco—the larger the better—and he always seemed to marvel at the marketplace’s ability to consistently deliver food to consumers.

Wally would like to be remembered as an honest and straight shooter, and indicated that he was most proud of surviving (even though he not only survived but thrived). Walter is survived by children Ann (Jerry) Jessop (68), Steve (Michelle) (67), Walter “Ken” (Joni) (66), Joan (Celeste) (65), Matthew (Liz) (63), Stephanie Murphy (61), Heidi (Tim) Hickisch (58), and Benjamin (Shelley) (50), as well as fourteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A funeral will be held at Pax Christi Catholic Church, 10675 Jaguar Drive, Lone Tree, 80124, at 11:00 am on Friday, August 11, 2023.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.olingerchapelhill.com for the Smith family.