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Rev. Donald Smith Veteran
March 19, 2018

Obituary

HOLLIS/SOUTH PORTLAND- Rev. Donald C. Smith, 84, died peacefully at home on March 19, 2018.

Don was the 2nd son of Edwin R. Smith and Grace Clark Smith. He grew up on the Smith Family Homestead in the Bear Hill section of Hollis and in Clarks Mills. He attended a one room school house where his mother and aunt were his very strict teachers. Death cast a shadow on his life at a young age, his father passed away when he was 8 and his younger sister died when he was 13; these losses would shape his faith, his work and his relationships.

After graduating from Hollis High School, Don attended Gorham State Teachers College, followed by an eye-opening stint in the Navy. He then returned to Hollis to teach at SAD#6 for 11 years. But all the while, he was feeling a pull towards the ministry. He became a student pastor at Buxton Centre Baptist Church while pursuing a MDiv degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton.

He would spend 27 years as the minister at Buxton Centre Baptist Church, impacting his congregation and his community beyond Sunday services. He mentored kids through youth groups, being a Boy Scout leader and coaching girl’s softball. He taught adults how to engage with the Holy Spirit in Bible study groups. And he was a community activist through Faith at Work, Day One and Tres Dias.

At the young age of 51, he met Jean A. Badran at a China Lake Retreat. He was smitten on sight. A couple of months later he proposed and just six months after they met, they tied the knot. This was Jean’s second marriage and she brought a teenage daughter, Lecia, into his house.

The new family invited Laurie Graves, a 17 year old Day One Resident into their home. She was the light of Don’s life for the year she spent with them and he enjoyed being a grandpa to her kids.

The new family went on trips to California, Washington DC, Pennsylvania and New York. Don really enjoyed exploring new places, he often waxed poetic about cruising the Mediterranean in his Navy days and driving backroads to deliver Stanley products to augment his ministerial wages during the 1970s. He absolutely loved road trips, from cross country trips with his older brother, Eddie, to visit National Parks, bus tours of baseball parks all across the country, and adventures with Jean and Lecia around Nova Scotia. In his later years, Don was attempting to explore every road in the Maine Gazetteer.

Jean was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2002. After a six year battle with the disease and almost 24 years of marriage, she left Don’s life, leaving an emptiness in him that could not be fully mended.

Don was passionate about his faith, music, baseball, his garden, cats, ice cream, Wells Beach, playing guitar and singing lustfully despite being unable to carry a tune, his orange truck, puns, “lobsta” and Moxie.

In the past few years he performed in a musical trio “The Three D’s,” taught at Senior College and was a guest minister all around southern Maine.

Don is survived by his daughter, Lecia Badran-Doane, his beloved feline, Coco, and his cousins Janet Clark Riedel and Margurite Clark Gardner and their families.

A celebration of his life will be held at Buxton Centre Baptist Church on March 31, 2018, at 2:00 pm.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Chad E. Poitras Cremation and Funeral Service, Buxton. Online condolence messages can be submitted at the funeral home website, www.mainefuneral.com

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to World Vision’s Economic Empowerment Program (https://donate.worldvision.org/gift-catalog/economic-empowerment)

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Chad E. Poitras Cremation & Funeral Service
498 Long Plains Road
Buxton, ME 04093
207-929-3723