Aidan Jeffrey Smith

It is with deep sadness we announce the death of Aidan Jeffrey Smith. Aidan was born on February 12, 1981 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, and grew up in Brewster on Cape Cod. He graduated from Nauset Regional High School and went on to major in history at Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 2003 with distinction. He went on to graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he researched anti-poverty organizing in the American South. He moved to Bloomington, Indiana in 2009 to take a position at the Journal of American History, and moved on to become the Public History Manager at the Organization of American Historians where he was an indispensable and much beloved colleague. He died on April 23, 2018 very unexpectedly in his sleep. Aidan is survived by his loving parents, Eileen and Jeff, his sister, Colleen, many aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as his devoted partner, Judith Brown, and the extended Brown family. Aidan will be enormously missed and remembered for his charming, gentle presence, his generous hospitality, his passion for cooking, music, and history, as well as his devotion to the home he made with Judith, and their cats, Silas and Wells. Services will be private. Donations in his memory may be sent to The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation or the Southern Poverty Law Center. Day & Deremiah-Frye Funeral Home, 4150 E. Third. St., Bloomington, Indiana is entrusted with arrangements. Online condolences may be given to the family at www.DayDeremiahFrye.com