SGT Ronald C. Smith
1942 - 2023
USAF
VN
Ronald Clyde Smith was born on February 3, 1942, in Los Angeles, California to Madison and Shirley Knisely Smith.
After graduating from Garfield High School, Smith was drafted in the peacetime draft of 1960, and he joined the U.S. Air Force. USAF Strategic Air Command offered him his choice of European military hospital assignments, and he opted for France, where he was stationed in Châteauroux as a Sergeant. He excelled there as a medic, and decided to pursue dentistry.
After his honorable discharge in 1962, Smith returned to California, and was accepted to Stanford University where he earned his undergraduate degree. He moved to Chicago to complete dental school at Loyola School of Dentistry, then served as a resident at Hines VA Hospital. He went on to practice dentistry for over 35 years in the Western Springs, La Grange and Hinsdale communities in his private practice, until his retirement in 2013.
Smith and his first wife, Joyce, had three children; he remarried Joan Wilmore (née Stiverson) in 1999.
Born and raised in Southern California, Smith loved the outdoors - from the shoreline to the mountains. He loved to travel and hike, read and collect art.
SGT Ronald Smith, DDS, died peacefully on November 12, 2023 in his home, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Barrington.
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Remember. Honor. Teach.
Courtesy of Signal Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution