The Passing of a Man With a Loving Heart

There have been numerous tributes this week to Gary Smith (right) — a generous and loving man who worked at National Public Radio in Washington, DC, and was loved back by a large community of family and friends. Mr. Smith passed away at age 57. He was a baby boomer, like us. One of the most moving of the tributes was by NPR’s Scott Simon, and Scott has graciously given the editors of BoomerCafé permission to use it here –

NPR’s headquarters is filled with scores of people privileged to travel around the world to bring back stories about remarkable persons. For the past four years, one of the most remarkable was sitting right downstairs.

Gary Smith was a big, friendly man with a joshing smile who presided over the front desk. With undiscriminating warmth, he welcomed employees and visitors, executives and tourists, delivery people and those who would just wander in to use a bathroom.

Gary Smith died this week, at the age of 57. He loved his family, his friends, his faith, his work, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. That order was reversed during football season.

Gary managed to have personal relationships–friendships–with hundreds of people at the same time, and regarded his friendships as living things to be nourished every day. He remembered birthdays, hometowns, and the names of your children. He asked about spouses, mothers, and where you got those shoes. He told you what he thought of those shoes.

Once, I brought our daughter’s deceased fish, Salman Fishdie, into work in a plastic bag. I was going to get a new fish–switch Salmans, if you please–on the way home, and told Gary I had to put the late Sammi in a bin. Gary said, “You can’t do that, Scott. That little fish has a soul. Everyone has a soul. We have to bury him.”

So we went outside together, scooped out a small hole, and consigned Salman Fishdie to eternal rest under a city tree. When I was flummoxed about what to say, Gary spoke up: “Sammi, you were a great little fish and a little girl loved you. Thank you.”

It was as perfect an oration about a life as I’ve ever heard.

NPR’s White House correspondent, David Greene, is also a Steeler’s fan. After David’s mother died, Gary would call him on Sundays, because he knew David missed talking to his mother during the games. When the Steelers were welcomed to the White House after winning the Superbowl, David made certain that Gary received a credential. The two of them gawked and squealed, but Gary made sure to get David an autograph from his mother’s favorite player.

“Here’s a man who asked for so little,” David said this week, “and yet was willing to spread love to strangers who walked through those glass doors. ”

Gary was religious, in a building filled with people in a profession that’s known for attracting skeptics. Yet I heard a few reporters say yesterday, “If a person as good as Gary was religious, maybe there’s something to God.”

I think that something was reflected in the way that Gary reminded us, “Everyone has a soul.”

People would walk through those glass doors, hurried and harried, anxious, timorous, angry or distressed. Gary beheld them with a kind of rare insight at which journalists can only marvel.

Gary Smith saw through to people’s souls. And the beauty that Gary was determined to see in others was the loveliness that lit up his face, and so many lives, every day.

~ Scott Simon

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Special thanks to NPR’s Lee Hill for use of the photo of Gary Smith.