TOPSHAM – Maynard Smith, 81, a true son of Maine, died 2:30 in the morning Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009, in the arms of his beloved wife, Melva. He was surrounded by the wilderness that he loved, inside the camp he had purchased in 1972 and restored throughout the years with the help of his many friends and large family. His friends brought his body out from the island, across the waters of Rocky Lake in Machias and tenderly cared for his grieving wife until her children could come to bring her back to their home on Merrymeeting Bay in Topsham. His death was swift and painless, coming after the work of putting his camp down for the winter, two weeks after his return from the last of many successful moose hunts in Newfoundland. Maynard was born Sept. 9, 1928, at home in Freeport, but his real home was, is and has always been the woodlands of Maine. He hunted from an early age and was such a natural part of the Maine forest that he seemed to disappear into it. He was a devoted and unsentimental conservator of the wilderness and the creatures that populated it. He graduated from Freeport High School in 1946 with some help from his friends, and joined the Army. He served as an honor guard under Gen. Westmoreland in Washington, D.C., with the 82nd Airborne. He married his wife, Melva Scott Smith, Oct. 22, 1949, and they lived and raised their children, Margaret Griswold, Martha Marques, M. Daniel Smith and Michael Smith. They buried two children, Maynard Scott Smith and Katherine Smith, as infants. He built and ran a successful electrical contracting business that provided work for many for 35 years. His brother-in-law, Granville Carter, introduced him to the Lions Club in 1969. It was a reluctant introduction at first; Granville had to call him and come to get him every month to take him to the meetings. But in 1987 Maynard discovered the Lions Club Canadian/American Youth Camp. He and his wife participated in that camp for the next 14 years and he was very proud of the work he did there. His relationships with those young people were valuable and long lasting. He ran for international director of Lions and did not win, but typically he regarded it as one of the high points of his life. The backing and support that he got from his friends and family was deeply felt and appreciated by him. Maynard is survived by his wife, Melva; his children; his brother, David Smith; his sisters, Lois Carter and Marion Libby; his loving mother-in-law, Beryl Strout; his grandchildren, Scott, Aaron, Brian, Eric, Sarah, Shannon and Blake Smith, Devan Marques, Joshua Marks, Christopher Thompson, Martha Mai Bryon, Lori Griswold-Craft and Matthew Griswold; and by 19 great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his many, many friends who lived all over the country, from Alaska to Colorado to Maine. He had friends of every age and background; from Owen who took the orange hunting cap “my friend Maynard” had given him for kindergarten show-and-tell, to Lou Small who opposed him successfully in the run for Lions International Director and in the process became a reliable partner in bringing their Lions district together and shaping the contributions that the organization made to the people of Maine and New England. The memorial service for Maynard Smith will be held 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, at First Parish Church Congregation UCC, 40 Maine St., Freeport. Please make donations, in lieu of flowers, to either organization: Freeport Lions Club, care of Stephen McPheeters, 65 Hunter Road, Freeport, ME 04032 or First Parish Church Congregation UCC, 40 Main St., Freeport, ME 04032. A service of Bragdon-Kelley Funeral Home, Machias. www.bragdonkelley.com
MAYNARD SMITH
