David Callaway Smith

David graduated in 1964 from Western Michigan University (WMU) with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He started his accounting career the same year in the Chicago office of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. and was elected partner in 1971. He stayed with the firm for his entire career, transferring to Houston and then to New York City, where he retired in 1993 as Vice Chairman Tax of KPMG. He then served on the board of directors and audit committee of Penncorp Financial Group until 2000.

A gregarious conversationalist, David enjoyed travel, golf, and music.

His wanderlust began at an early age. As reported in the San Jose, California, newspaper on May 12, 1945: “David Smith, 3 1/2 years old…heedless of the formality of obtaining a ticket or his parents’ consent, boarded a San Jose bound train at the Broadway Station, Burlingame, because he ‘wanted to take a choo-choo ride.’ … When train crewmen discovered their youthful passenger… he was entertaining a car full of hot and weary commuters.” The railway company sent him home later that night with some fanfare. Later travels took him around the world for his work and for pleasure with his family. In later years, he particularly enjoyed cruise ship travel.

He took up golf as a career requirement but came to enjoy it. Over the years, he had memberships at the Inverness Golf Club, Palatine, Ill., and at The Woodlands Country Club and The Club at Carlton Woods, both in The Woodlands. In his decades of chasing golf balls, he managed to bring home trophies from a few club tournaments and sink two holes in one. But he was more proud of managing a “Weekday Golfers” group that focused as much on the social aspects of the sport as on performance.

His love of music began with dancing lessons at the insistence of his mother, the late Julia Callaway Smith, but he came to appreciate the skill. Later in life, he served on the board of directors of the Houston Symphony and was a longtime season ticket holder at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands. Even as dementia slowly stole his other memories, he would dance, shake the maracas, or conduct music whenever the opportunity presented at his final residence, The Auberge of The Woodlands.

David delighted in science and technology—especially communications technology. As a young man, he and his father, the late Stanley Williams Smith, were avid amateur radio operators. David spent many late nights talking to people around the world to collect QSL cards or relay telephone messages. Decades later, he loved to video chat with far-flung family and friends.

He was also a strong advocate of public service. He was active in the early years of the Buehler YMCA in Palatine, Ill., where he was selected as Man of the Year in 1974. In 1977, he was named Board Chairman of the Year for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. He volunteered for many years at pro and junior golf tournaments in the Houston area. In 1992, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from WMU. He was also proud to serve as treasurer and a member of the board of trustees for Scholarship America from 1993 to 2004.

He is survived by his wife, the former Marijane Dekema of The Woodlands; a daughter, Stephanie Weiss of The Woodlands; a son and daughter-in-law, Scott and Luciana Smith of Nova Lima, Brazil; two granddaughters; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A celebration of his life is pending. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Scholarship America, the WMU Haworth College of Business Scholarship, or the Center for the Performing Arts at The Woodlands.