SUNSHINE, DEER ISLE – Dr. Gardner Watkins Smith, 75, died peacefully and comfortably Oct. 5, 2006, at his home after a courageous battle with small-cell lung cancer, which had spread rapidly. His wife Susan and several friends were by his side. His three children and six grandchildren all had been with him recently. He was born the son of George Van Siclen Smith and Olive Watkins Smith in Boston. He grew up preparing to be a doctor like his parents – attending Roxbury Latin School, Boston, graduating from Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.; Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. While in college, he earned his pilot’s license, flying small planes until the 1980s, and started a 39-year career in the U.S. Naval Reserves, from which he retired as a captain nicknamed “the sailing doc.” After medical school, while interning in surgery and doing research at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, he met his wife, Susan Whiteford Smith. They married in 1958 and had a daughter, Elizabeth Whiteford Smith, now Whitehead, before moving to Charlottesville, Va., in 1959, where he finished his surgical residency in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery and joined the academic surgical staff at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Their daughter, Rebecca Tremain Smith and son, George Van Siclen Smith II were born during this time. In 1970, they returned to Baltimore, where Gardner accepted a triple appointment: chief of surgery at Baltimore City Hospitals, professor of surgery at Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical School. During the Vietnam War he trained surgeons in Saigon and treated Montenard refugees in the field under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “Gardner Smith was a surgical leader who was devoted to his patients and the institutions he served,” says Ronald R. Peterson, president of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System and former president of Hopkins Bayview. Peterson notes that Gardner’s service at Hopkins Bayview was a second tour of duty for him. First as surgeon in chief at the then Baltimore City Hospitals from 1970 to 1979, and then as chair of surgical sciences at Hopkins Bayview from 1985 until his retirement in 1996. From 1979-1985, he was deputy director of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 2000, Hopkins Bayview named an annual lectureship in Gardner’s honor and hung his portrait in the hospital gallery. “Gardner was one of the greats of our institution,” long-time friend and colleague John Burton, M.D., was quoted as saying in a Hopkins Bayview release after Gardner’s death. “Patients loved him. He was kind, considerate, compassionate and outstanding at follow-up, checking often to be certain things were on course. He was a very fine man who over the years helped many, many people. I will miss him greatly.” Gardner and Susan enjoyed Eggemoggin Reach for many decades before moving permanently to Deer Isle in 1998. Since moving to Maine, Gardner had served as board chairman and board member of the Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, as a board member of the Island Medical Center and Kneisel Hall. His years as a Deer Isle resident had been filled with enjoyment: reading to students at the elementary school; playing violin; joining the Cabin Fever theater troupe; serving as the road commissioner for Plumb Point; watching over two islands for the Maine Island Trail Association; traveling to the Galapagos Islands, Alaska and Hawaii; and gunkholing the Maine coast in sailboats, kayaks and his 21-foot outboard motorboat, Hermes. He cared deeply for the Island, the larger community and his family. He is survived by his wife, children, sister, Nancy Hudnut of Glens Falls, N.Y.; and six grandchildren, David, Jack, and Ben Whitehead of San Antonio, Texas, Sarah, Maya and Michael Culbertson of Philadelphia, Pa., and their fathers, Paul Whitehead and Steve Culbertson. A gathering to celebrate Gardner’s life will be held 2 p.m. Nov. 11, at Goose Cove Lodge, Deer Isle. Memorial donations may be made to the Gardner W. Smith Lectureship, Johns Hopkins-Bayview, 4940 Eastern Ave., Baltimore, MD 21224 or to The Island Medical Center, P.O. Box 403, Stonington, ME 04681.
GARDNER WATKINS SMITH
