Rodney E. Smith

Rod was born on November 21, 1945 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver, CO to Ralph and Leone Smith and passed away at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Lakewood, CO surrounded by his family.

Rod was preceded in death by his younger brother, Greg, father Ralph and mother Leone, and sister in law Terrie. He is survived by his wife Linda, his 2 children, Susan (Tim) and Melissa (Chris) and 3 grandchildren; Kaitlyn, Cameron and Callum, his brother Ron and sister Mickey “Michelle” (Phil), brother in law, Butch “Duane”, many cousins, nephews, nieces, great nephews and great nieces.

Rod enlisted in the US Navy on November 1st, 1966 and served 13 months active duty and in the reserves until 1973. His ranking was an EM2 and proudly served on the USS Dixie (San Diego, CA).

Rod and Linda married on April 27th, 1968 at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Arvada, CO.

Rod graduated from Cherry Creek high school in 1963 and later received an associates degree from Metro State University in Computer Sciences.

Rod worked for Burstein Applebee’s as a District Manager after completion of his military service. He was a loyal employee for many years and moved onto Zenith Data Systems and was very successful in his time with Zenith until they disbanded. Rod then went to work for several other computer sales companies, ultimately retiring from Macro Solutions Group in 2012.

Rod was a long time member of the Arvada Elks, elected trustee for 5 years and loved being on their traveling bowling league and running bingo nights. He was so fond of his bowling mates and co-members of the Elks Lodge.

Not only was Rod a softball coach for almost 19 years, he successfully ran a softball organization with up to 8 teams at any given time for 10 years and coached Melissa and her team for many years. He was very admired in the softball community.

He loved to watch his grandsons play sports and go to his granddaughters dance recitals and dance competitions.

Rod loved Chevy vehicles and even worked part time the last couple of years for Medved Chevrolet helping people get back and forth to work/home while having their vehicles worked on.

Rod loved to golf, bowl, fish, country dance and spend time with his family and friends. He cared for so many people and lived life with integrity and humbleness. He will be greatly missed by so many. He also looked forward to attending the Annual Headrick Reunions held on Labor Day weekend in Thornton, CO and in Bird City, KS for many years.

Funeral services for Rod will be held on April 15th, 2022 at Fort Logan National Cemetery at 9:15am. Friends and family will gather at Staging Area "C". His celebration of life will follow at the Arvada Elks at 11:00am.

Location Information:

Fort Logan National Cemetery 4400 W Kenyon Ave, Denver, CO 80236

Arvada Elks Lodge 5700 Yukon St, Arvada, CO 80002

Donations can be made in Rod's honor to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

https://givenow.lls.org/give/342076/ds_rl=1278572&ds_rl=1278572&gclid=CjwKCAjwxZqSBhAHEiwASr9n9OziW_RhLOSyEkrVaquiBO0bEnd-kiepq68ddz31KWw3Iph19ZTJhoCi6QQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#!/donation/checkout

Flowers can be sent to Rod's family to the Arvada Elks Lodge, 5700 Yukon St, Arvada, CO 80002