Garrett Rodney Smith
April 2, 1961 - April 2, 2018
Obituary
Garrett (Garry) Rodney Smith, 57, passed away in a tragic accident on April 2, 2018 in Miami, Florida. Garry was born on April 2, 1961 in Portland, Oregon to Rodney and Ina Smith (the baby of six children). Garry graduated with honors from Sherwood High School in Oregon and received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a Minor in Computer Science from Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho.
Garry began his successful 35-year career in Technology at Pacific Telecom and Business Information Technologies. He spent the last 20 years of his career at US WEST/AirTouch and the City of Seattle. While working at AirTouch, Garry met, fell in love with, and married his soul mate and best friend; Anne Wilson. Garry and Anne built a wonderful, happy, blessed life together in North Bend, WA. culminating with the birth of their three children.
While growing up, Garry loved to hike, camp, hunt, and fish the outdoors. He was an excellent skier. As a young adult, every weekend not spent working on his beloved ‘65 Mustang was spent skiing glassy lakes in the summer or snowy slopes in the winter. Garry possessed the rare combination of extreme intelligence, common sense, and communication skills. He was loved, respected, and admired by all who knew him.
In addition to his love of the outdoors and adventurous spirit, Garry was a phenomenal builder and handyman. He could design, build, and fix just about anything. Most of his projects were designed and crafted in his head and built without need of a blueprint. Some of those projects included; replacing all the windows in his home, building a covered deck, re-siding the entire back of his house, refinishing furniture, framing and remodeling entire rooms, landscaping the yard, installing cabinets, repairing automobiles, building a play structure for the kids, and priming, painting, and finishing the inside and outside of numerous homes, etc. The skill, attention to detail, quality, and perfection in his work constantly amazed and impressed all those around him. Garry also possessed the unique gift of organization; every tool and toy had a specific place and he could without effort, recall the exact location of every item.
Garry was a faith-filled, God-loving man. He was generous, kind, loving, extremely funny, and truly selfless. His priority was always others above himself. He had a unique, special, and close relationship with all three of his children. He made everyone he met feel valued, interesting, and important. His wife, children, family, and friends always came first. Throughout life’s challenges his demeanor, huge smile, sense of humor, and bright blue eyes never wavered. He was an inspiration to all those who knew him. A beloved husband, father, son, brother, uncle, cousin, friend, and co-worker.
Garry was preceded in death by his parents, Rodney and Ina Smith, brother Randall Smith, and sister Rhonda Kneeland. Garry leaves behind his devoted and loving wife of 24 years, Anne; sons Caleb Wilson Smith and Christian Garrett Smith; daughter Halle Joan Smith; sisters Dena Smith, Marla Rumpf (Carl), Lisa Comella (Mark), and sister-in-law, Glennys Smith. In addition, Garry leaves behind numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, extended family, and friends.
Garry will be greatly missed by all those who knew and loved him. Heavens gain is our great loss.
A celebration of Garry’s life will be held on Friday, April 20th at 11am at Churchome, located at 9051 132nd Avenue, Kirkland, WA.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances in Garry’s name may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation
I am so sorry for your tragic loss of this incredible husband, and Dad. He was truly gift to all who knew him and he gave so much to so many. Your family are in my thoughts and prayers. I am a friend of Teresa’s and have heard numerous great things about Garry.
I have no words…this is such a tragic loss. My prayers are with the entire family. Be blessed.
Deeply saddened and shocked to hear of Garry’s Passing. Sending our love, thoughts and prayers to all of the family.
Garry was a loving, kind and caring man, always smiling and friendly.
Thinking of you all and wishing you moments of peace and comfort at this devastating time.
Sincere Sympathies, Steve, Geraldine, Connor and Kyle
My heartfelt condolences go out to you and your family.
I extended my sincerest sympathies. I have been blessed by the entire Smith family. May the comforter comforter you during this time and throughout the rest of your lives
Our heartfelt sympathy/empathy goes out to you Anne, the three kids and all the Smith clan. The unexpected and sudden nature of his passing is so hard on everybody. We’ll always be so grateful for our special relationship. Special memories will be our last warm visit on Burt’s ninetieth – just a few short weeks ago Happily, memories are forever. We are saddened in that driving restrictions prevent us from being with you at Garry’s memorial. Rest assured that he, you and the family will be very much in our thoughts and prayers on that day and every day. Much love, you were there for us when we lost our Annie, our gratefulness never ends. Much love…… .
So Sorry to hear of Garry’s passing, our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Garry lived his life with passion and grace and
set a great example for others to follow.
He will be missed.
Garry will be missed on so many levels! He will be remembered for his kind heart and ability to make all around him feel special. His smile was infectious and his humor was adored. What a loss to those of us here on earth?
I pray for comfort for the entire family, and thank God for the wonderful memories and will always feel and the love Garry gave.
Such a loss……he will be missed……I love you Garry.
Heartfelt condolences to Anne, kids and extended family. Garry was a treasured friend, mentor and co-worker. He will be greatly missed.
We pray God’s comfort and peace for the whole family during this difficult time. We send our love and support to you all!
My thoughts and prayers go out the Smith family. Although I’ve known Garry just a short time, he will be greatly missed.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. Unfortunately we know too well about loosing a loved one.
Hopefully he will see Allan in heaven as Allan really enjoyed Garry over the many years he knew him.