Bernard was born on May 9th, 1931 in Sioux City Iowa to Cecil and Ollie (Ackerly) Smith. He attended City College of San Francisco for 1 ½ years before joining the Navy in 1951, where he served for 4 years as an Aviation Electronics Technician and Combat Aircrew Member during the Korean Conflict. Bernard served as a flight radar observer and ECM operator on Lockheed P2V-5 Neptune. After his tour of duty, he continued his education in Electrical Engineering at San Jose State University.
In 1955, Bernard started his career in Electrical Engineering at Varian Associates, in Palo Alto, CA. His career progressed from there to Fair Child Semiconductor R & D, Time Data Corporation, ESL Inc., and ADAC Laboratories. In 1985 Bernard started working at ARGOSystems, in San Jose, CA, where he was eventually promoted to Director of the Product Engineering Department.
On May 23rd, 1952 Bernard married the love of his life, Tania Podgoretsky. Together they raised 3 daughters, Terry, Karen, and Cheryll. As Tania’s health started to decline, Bernard was her constant caregiver up until her death in 2019.
Bernard was well respected by his family and friends. He enjoyed traveling, gardening, woodworking, and raising dogs. He will be remembered for being a very smart, caring man who always had the answers, could fix anything, and was always there to support his family whenever they needed him.
Bernard was preceded in death by his wife, Tania, his father, Cecil, and his mother, Ollie. He is survived by his children, Terry, Karen, and Cheryll; his grandchildren, Melissa, Andrew, Heather, Bret, Nicole, Kristin, and Carter; as well as 4 great grandchildren, Austin, Ava, Sydney, and Savannah.
There will be a private service for family only.
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