David Douglas Smits, Ph.D., age 84 years, of Clinton Township, NJ, died peacefully on Friday, June 3, 2022, at Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, NJ.

He was born on April 26, 1938 in Green Bay, WI.  He was the son of Orville and Goldie (Romang) Smits.  His sister Barb’s birthday was the only birthday Dave could never forget—Barb was born on the same day—five years after Dave.  The Smits family lived on a farm in Seymour and in DePere when Dave was growing up.

Dave loved sports.  He played football in grade school, high school and college. Not surprisingly, he was a life-long Green Bay Packer fan who loved to tell the story about seeing Ray Nitschke (#66) play his first game at City Stadium in Green Bay after being drafted by the Packers. He actually met Ray years later and they were able to reminisce about the Lombardi years.

Dave, like many kids from the Midwest, not heading to college after high school, joined the Navy. He served on the USS Boston, a guided missile cruiser and travelled the world including a trip to represent the United States at the funeral of King Haakon VII of Norway.  He was a Navy Shellback (crossed the Equator) and Blue Nose (crossed the Artic Circle).  At one point Dave was assigned shore patrol duty in Guantanamo, Cuba, the town adjacent to the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.  Shore patrol duty was to control fights and incidents when U.S. sailors, and Cuban soldiers serving in Batista’s Army who were taking a break from fighting Castro’s revolutionaries, were drinking and caroused together in the same bars and brothels.

Naval service convinced Dave to attend college.  After service he attended and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and began graduate school.

He met his wife Pat at Madison.  They decided to respond to President Kennedy’s challenge to “Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for you country” and joined the Peace Corps, a program established by JFK.  They were lucky to be in a group of volunteers assigned to Guatemala in 1963.  Peace Corp service was a life-changing experience.  Their blue-eyed blond daughter Susie, born in Guatemala, really helped them in their work and acceptance in Comalapa, an indigenous high-land community.  During the pandemic members of their Peace Corp group have regularly scheduled Zoom calls.  The group also have had a number of reunions, including one in Guatemala.

Dave returned to graduate school after the Peace Corp.  He received a Ph.D. in Latin American History before beginning his teaching career in the History Department at Trenton State College, now the College of New Jersey.  Dave taught a variety of history courses, including many Native American history courses.  He loved teaching and especially his interaction with students and former students.

Known to his friends and students as the “storyteller,” Dave began writing historical fiction after his retirement, writing a novel “Me Ramblins ’Cross the Wide Missouri,” about a fictitious Irish-American young man, Patrick Michael McLoughlin who went West and became enchanted by the land and its people.  He recently finished his second novel, “More Ramblins ’Cross the Wide Missouri” with more of Patrick’s adventures.

If asked how to survive fifty plus years of marriage, Dave might have said something like: “If you wish your marriage to be touched with lasting beauty, cherish those gracious visions of your first love. Let them not be blurred by the common events (he would use a different word) of life.”  He also often remarked that “it also helps if you bite your tongue at least twelve times a day!”

Dave was predeceased by his parents, Orville and Goldie Smits, and by his beloved grandson, Tommy Ryan Devlin.

He is survived by his sister, Barbara Smits; his wife, Patricia Garity Smits; their three children, Jonathan (Sarah), Susan, and Beth; and five grandchildren; Jake Elliott, Michael and Andrew Smits, Megan Lako, and Dylan Caldwell.

Dave will lie in repose on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 from 4:00 -7:00 p.m. in the Chapel of Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 38 State Highway 31, Flemington, NJ.

Life celebration services officiated by Certified Celebrant Ruthann Disotell will follow the visitation at 7:00 p.m. and to which all are welcome.

Interment will be private at Highland Cemetery, Hopewell, NJ.

Realizing that some may be unable to attend due to the pandemic, the Life Celebration service will be live-streamed, with the stream being active starting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.  To watch, please click back to Dave’s main obituary page and follow the service link.

You are encouraged to visit Dave’s permanent life celebration site at www.wrightfamily.com to light a candle of hope, leave messages of condolence, share words of comfort and recollection, and post photographs of his life.

Memorial contributions in his honor may be made to the Southwestern Indian Foundation by clicking HERE. Please be sure to pick the ‘farm and stove assistance program’ as that would truly honor Dave.

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Wright & Ford, your local, family owned & operated “Life Celebration Home”

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