Obituary: William L. ‘Bill’ Smith of Upper St. Clair worked 42 years at U.S. Steel
Share this post:
Martin J. Smith once reached into the pocket of a tuxedo jacket his father William L. “Bill” Smith had given him and pulled out a special pin.
The Civitan International pin had been passed down from Martin Smith’s grandfather. To the Smith family, it represented a life well lived.
Smith died Tuesday of natural causes, a week short of his 102nd birthday.
“My dad was about as good a role model as I could have imagined,” said Martin Smith, 63, from his home in Granby, Colo. “That pin meant so much to him.” Civitan International is an international organization of volunteer service clubs, with an emphasis on helping people with developmental disabilities.
William Smith, of Upper St. Clair, worked for 42 years at U.S. Steel, beginning at a wire mill near Birmingham in his native Alabama. After moving to Pittsburgh in the early 1960s, he rose to become general manager for space and defense marketing in Pittsburgh.
“Despite the demands of his career and health difficulties during his later years, my dad remained upbeat, good-humored, and a genteel Southern gentleman throughout his long life,” said Martin Smith, a writer who chronicled his father’s journey from mill worker to executive in a book, “My Father’s Tuxedo: The Story of a Suit.”
Smith’s career took him all over the world. He helped design livestock barns in the South and West and worked with NASA to help construct historic Apollo program launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, his son said.
In his role as chairman of the American Iron and Steel Institute’s market development subcommittee, it is believed that he signed the agreement that gave the Pittsburgh Steelers the right to use the “Steelmark” logo on their helmets.
Smith retired in 1982 as the “steel industry was melting down,” his son said. “He was the last person on his floor in the U.S. Steel building, because everyone else got laid off.”
[gps-image name=”2385814_web1_PTR-OBITWILLIAMLSMITH-4.jpg”]
Smith met his wife, Helen Vance, in Florida, in 1939 and they married in 1942. Both were born on March 3 and Martin Smith said the family had been planning to celebrate their “200th” birthday that day — when his mother will turn 98 and his father would be have been 102.
The couple lived at Friendship Village South Hills retirement community in Upper St. Clair. They moved there when William Smith’s eyesight began to deteriorate.
“He often told his doctor, ‘Your only job is to keep me alive one day longer than her,’ ” his son said. “Their bond was extraordinary.”
Even though he was blind, he recognized people by the sound of their voice at Friendship Village, where hey became known as the couple who walked hand-in-hand through the hallways. He taught himself to shave and perform other daily skills without eyesight.
“My father had a fierce independence,” his son said. “Whether it be to load and unload the dishwasher every day even though he was blind to walking his wife to dinner down the hall every day, he persevered. That fierce independence was one of his gifts to me. I cherish the way he lived his life.”
Martin Smith also cherishes that tuxedo pin.
“He wore that tuxedo for a talk he gave for work,” Martin Smith said. “After that, he called me and said, ‘Do you need a tuxedo?’ He shipped it to me and I found that pin in the pocket. I plan to give that tuxedo to my son … with the pin in the pocket.”
Smith was preceded in death by his daughter, Lisa Wren. In addition to his wife and son Martin, he is survived by his sons William Jr. of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., David Vance Smith of Panama City Beach, Fla., as well as 12 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.
His funeral mass will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. John Capistran Church, 1610 McMillan Road, Upper St. Clair. There is no viewing and burial will be private.