WEST PALM BEACH — Benjamin Anthony Smith, son of the late Abbott Metcalf Smith and Catherine Anthony, of New Bedford, passed away from complications following hip surgery in West Palm Beach, Florida; he was eighty five years old.
He attended Friends Academy in Dartmouth and Deerfield Academy where he was followed by two of his sons.
He graduated from Yale College in 1942. After service in the Navy North Africa and Bermuda in World War II, he returned to Yale for his law degree.
While at Yale he was a member of the Yale Glee Club and the Whiffenpoofs, a cappella singing group. The social ease and bonhomie of the Whiffenpoofs influenced his style throughout life.
After graduating from Yale Law School he practiced law for twenty years in Providence, RI, where he was a member of the Art Club and the Agawam Hunt Club. He was an active member of the English-Speaking Union.
He subsequently practiced law in New York City and Boulder CO.
He had a life long love of boats and in 1978 moved to Tortola, BVI to run a charter sailboat agency.
In 1980 he converted a former whaling captain's house in Edgartown MA into the Point Way Inn, which he ran successfully until his retirement in 1999.
In his later years he was an enthusiastic English croquet player; founding the Edgartown Mallet Club and participating in many United States Croquet Association events.
He is survived by three sons: Benjamin Anthony, of Boulder, CO, Llewellyn Gibbons of Brooklyn, NY, John Hyrne Tucker of Larchmont, NY; two daughters: Sarah Millee of Edinburgh, Scotland, Carol Gutwein of San Diego, CA, a stepdaughter Marni Katona of Bristow, Virginia; and five grandchildren.
An internment service will be held at the family mausoleum in the New Bedford Rural Cemetery on May 19, 2006, at 2 p.m.