Wilbur Edward Smith's Obituary
Wilbur Edward Smith, 91, passed away, May 9, 2013 at the Tacoma Lutheran Retireent Community in Tacoma, Wash. He was born on November 6, 1921, in Englewood, Colorado, to James Robert Lee Smith and Alice Penfield Arnold Smith.
Ed served as a naval photographer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise during WWII before being transferred to the Alameda Naval Air Station near San Francisco, where he met Gladys Leverson. They were married at the base chapel on May 26, 1945. Gladys died in 2002 after 57 years of marriage.
Ed worked as a machinist before and after being called up for service in the Korean conflict. In the late 1950s he joined Tacoma Public Utilities as a photographer and retired as supervisor of the photo lab in 1982.
He served as an elder at the First Presbyterian Church in Tacoma. He was a member of the Tacoma Astronomical Society and the Tacoma Faceters Guild. Other hobbies included ham radio (WA7TVZ), woodcarving and painting.
Ed is survived by his children, Diane Alice Campen of Portland, Ore., James Robert Lee Smith II of Spencer, Iowa, Marilyn Kay Hauser of Federal Way, Wash. and Karen Elaine Meloche of Tacoma; ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Interment will be next to his wife at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.
Memorials in Ed's name may be made to the Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Community.
Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home.
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