The Smith Family Adventures: November 2008

These are some pictures of my grandpa . On Nov. 6th , 2008 we lost him to pneumonia due to complications from having Myeloma (an incureable form of bone marrow cancer). He was an awesome guy ! I have to tell you a little about him . .

He married my Grandma on Jan . 5th, 1949. He was a great dad to 3 kids , Wanda ( my mom) Alan (my uncle) and Brenda ( my aunt) . He had 8 grandkids . and 3 great grandkids. He had a bachelor's degree from Wichita State University and he worked for various aircraft companies as a design engineer. He worked at Boeing, Cessna, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell.

He worked on the Space Shuttle projects and the Skylab. He also worked for KAKE TV in wichita and was a projectionist for various theaters in his younger days .

He was a photographer and he was awesome at it. He would always have a camera with him at all times. my whole life all I heard was " let me take your picture". and we would complain and fuss but he always got to take our picture. He had alot of hobbies .. he collected all kinds of radio stuff , stamps , & flower seeds .. he gardened and he learned Russian and German . His dream was to visit Moscow, Russia. My grandpa did so many things and was always at band concerts, football games , school programs and any other event we all had. He was very special to me . . He took me everywhere in Southern California !! I stayed with him & my grandma almost every weekend that I could . He took me on vacation to Kansas when I was 13 ... I will never forget that vacation that was so funny meeting all kinds of nutty realitives and visiting weird and unusual places along the way . . (Arizona - visited the Indians that live on a plateau ) saw the giant "Crater" hole in the earth .. climbed weird looking rocks in Kansas ( Rock City) . even saw the world's largest well somewhere I have no idea where .. He took me and my friend "Bekki" ice skating and had us try Shushi ! He was really good at playing "Skipo" ( a card game).

I was glad that he got to spend time with my kids and that they got to know the "camera guy" .. He would email me all the time with the funniest stuff and he would send me pictures of flowers and realitives .. I could always call him and tell him about anything and he would always laugh . I would send him all kinds of crazy cards that I made for him .

I will always treasure the time that I got to spend with him . He meant the world to me and I will always love him . He will be so truly missed .