C. Howard Smith

Charles Howard Smith, 85, Woodsfield, passed away at home Sunday morning, December 30, 2012.  He was born in a log cabin in Rinard Mills, Ohio, on January 19, 1927, the son of Everett and Waife (Cline) Smith.   He grew up on a large farm and joined the military during World War II.  He was a World War II veteran serving in Italy and Sicily.

He was an electrician by trade and worked many years as an electrician before becoming a rural letter carrier.  He retired from the Woodsfield Post Office in 1992. During his tenure as a postal worker, he received the million miles award for outstanding performance in driving one million miles without an accident. He was a member of the New Martinsville Pine Street Church of Christ.  He was also a part-time minister and preached in many small congregations in the area for many years. He could quote scripture from the Bible reciting chapter and verse verbatim. He was an avid reader and gifted artist.  He was quiet, soft spoken, and humble about his abilities.

He survived Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at age 25 when the renowned Dr. George Crile of Cleveland Clinic performed an innovative radical surgery at the time removing 60% of his internal organs.  He was left with what he called his “railroad tracks” of scars intersecting across his chest and abdomen.  He received dialysis three times a week, at the New Martinsville Dialysis Center, where he became very attached to Linda and Sandy, dialysis nurses that kept him alive for the past thirteen years.  Throughout more than a decade of dialysis, surgeries, procedures, and illnesses, he never complained and continued to enjoy politics, reading, and learning.

Surviving is his wife of 60 years, Grethel (Winland) Smith of Woodsfield, who cared for him during all his illnesses.  He had three children – Rhonda (Larry) Koslik  and Fonda (Jeff) Turner of Woodsfield and Vaughn (Angie Jones) Smith of Lawrenceville, Georgia; seven grandchildren, Kent Koslik of Anchorage, Alaska, and Kellen Koslik of Athens, Ohio; Elizabeth and Alexandra Turner, of Woodsfield, and Alexis, Rebecca and Quentin Smith of Lawrenceville, Georgia;  two brothers Gene (Pearl) Smith and Kenneth (Dot) Smith of Woodsfield; and one sister Emily (Don) Hartshorn, of Woodsfield, as well as numerous nieces and nephews living in the area complete the family.  In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one sister, Ethel Smith.  

Friends will be received January 2, 2013, hours 2-4 and 6-8 at Bauer Turner Funeral Home, Woodsfield, where military and funeral services will be held January 3, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. with Jeremy Joy officiating. Interment in the Oaklawn Cemetery Woodsfield.

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