April 19, 2023
Gerard Robert Smith, of Duncan B.C., passed away on April 19th at the age of 91. Born in Norwich, England he lived through the WW2 Blitz of Norwich and excelled at sports before training as a gym teacher at Loughborough College. After two decades teaching and training teachers in England he bought a long-abandoned, remote croft house on the banks of Loch Shiel in Scotland, renovated it and with his wife, Viv turned it into an outdoor activity centre. He built a house on Thetis Island in the 1990s and lived there with Viv until a few years ago. A passionate sailor, he sailed around the world with Viv in a 36-ft sloop. He was a polymath, a builder, an artist, a musician, an aviator and a sportsman and he wrote three books on sailing and coastal and celestial navigation. He leaves Viv, a son Jeremy, who is a molecular biophysics professor in Tennessee, and a granddaughter, Serena who lives in London.