Grant Gill Smith

OBITUARY FOR GRANT GILL SMITH

GRANT GILL SMITH, 88, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, “favorite uncle” and internationally recognized chemistry professor passed away August 8, 2010, at his home in Logan, Utah incident to age.
Gill was born September 25, 1921, in Fielding, Utah to Joseph H. Smith and Bertha Jensen Smith. He graduated from Bear River High School in 1939; received a B.A. with honors in chemistry at the University of Utah (1943) and a PhD in organic chemistry with highest honors at the University of Minnesota (1949).
His graduate studies were interrupted during World War II when he worked as a research chemist for the secret Manhattan Project in laboratories in Oak Ridge, TN.
He married Phyllis Cook of Tremonton, Utah, on December 30, 1946 in the Logan Temple beginning a great 54-year marriage.
Following a year as a chemistry instructor at UofM, Gill began his teaching and research career at Washington State College where he taught chemistry for 12 years. That was followed by 29 years as professor and researcher in organic chemistry at Utah State University. Upon retirement in the chemistry department, Gill served as the Director, International Office of Water Education in the College of Engineering at USU, 1990-92.
Gill also served as the Chairman of the Building Committee for the building of Maeser Laboratory and the remodel of the Widtsoe Hall at USU. In 1967, he was the 34th Faculty Honors Lecturer at USU and received the ACS-Utah Award from the Salt Lake and Central Utah Sections in 1977. He was the associate editor for the J. of Heterocyclic Chemistry for nine years and president of the Utah Academy of Science, Arts and Letters from 1976-77.
Among his many accomplishments at USU, he founded the Summer Science Lecture series, which drew a variety of famous scientists to campus including astrophysicist and Big Bang Theory expert Dr. David Schramm, moon astronaut Jack Schmidt, and Wolfgang Panofsky, Director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. For many years the lecture series was a popular attraction for local residents as well as out-of-town visitors.
During his career, Gill’s research focused primarily on amino acid racemization and he became a world expert on determining the age of ancient artifacts, including a glacier-encased woolly mammoth and Dr. Henry deLumley’s Tautavel Man.
His most significant professional achievement was to apply his professional training and experience in organic and analytical chemistry, gas chromatography, mass spectroscopy and expertise in multivariate statistical analysis to complex biological materials. The method developed by Gill and his colleagues has been applied to numerous biological materials and opens the field to an unlimited number of applications of chemistry to biology, agriculture, medicine, and environmental science. He received the top award at the 8th International Symposia on Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis in Lund, Sweden in 1988 because of this research.
His extensive research allowed Gill and his wife, Phyllis, to travel around the world, with special memories in India, Australia, Amsterdam, Great Britain, Thailand, and Greece. They also hosted many dignitaries at their home in River Heights.
As a life-long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gill served as the first bishop of the Pullman Ward in Washington State and as a stake mission president Then later in Utah as a stake executive secretary, gospel doctrine teacher and high councilor, among many other positions. Later in life he served as a Logan Temple worker. His unshakable faith and strong personal example have blessed his family and countless others.
Gill loved the outdoors with a special interest in flowers and trees. He and Phyllis often took their family camping, hiking, fishing and horseback riding. Snow skiing was a passion he enjoyed until he was 83 years old. It was a sport he taught his children and many of his grandchildren. He was also a lover of opera.
Following the passing of his wife, Phyllis in1999, Gill married Julia McQuarrie Burnham on June 25, 2003. They had seven wonderful years together.
Gill is preceded in death by his wife, Phyllis; his parents; brothers Ralph Jensen Smith, Joseph Harold Smith, Farren Day Smith; and sisters Nona Rhead, Virginia Beal and Alice Marie McFarland.
He is survived by his wife Julia; sister Beth Foxley Iverson, St George, UT; children Meredith (Norman) Ashton, Ogden, UT; Kathleen Phinney, Tacoma WA; Vivienne (Crismon) Lewis, Gresham, OR; Geoffrey (Peggy) Smith, Logan, UT; Randall (Norene) Smith, Farmington, UT; Roger (Andrea) Smith, Hyde Park, UT; 35 grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be at 11:00 am on Monday, August 16, at the River Heights Stake Center, 800 South 600 East, River Heights. A viewing will be on Sunday, August 15, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 East Center Street, Logan, and from 9:30 to 10:30 am at the LDS church prior to the funeral services. Interment will be in the Fielding Cemetery at 2:30 pm. Condolences and memories may be expressed online at www.allenmortuaries.net .