Please share your memories in the “Leave a Reply” box below this version of the formal obituary with lots of added photos.
Dr. Paul A. Smith, 86 (Cedar Rapids) passed away peacefully with his daughters holding his hands on Monday, March 9th 2020 at Unity Point – St. Luke’s Hospital after a brief battle with pneumonia.
Paul Aiken Smith was born January 12, 1934 in Bucaramanga, Colombia, the fourth child of Rev. Pryor T. Smith Sr., a Presbyterian Missionary, and Letha (Brubaker) Smith.
The family lived in a house on a mountainside overlooking Medellin where he enjoyed watching people, butterflies, and sunsets.
Paul learned Spanish from his playmates, and was home schooled by his mother until she passed away in 1942, at which time the family returned to the United States. In Concordia, Kansas his father married high-school classmate Alice Sjogren who was willing to leave her teaching post to take on the family of four boys and a girl ranging in age from 5-16.
Paul graduated from Geneseo High School in Geneseo, Illinois…
…and attended Park College in Parkville, Missouri. There Margaret McCluggage invited him to a Sadie Hawkins dance, and the two began courting. They were married in a church she had helped build in Juneau, Alaska, on August 27, 1958. He completed his Master’s degree at Washington University in St. Louis, MO and his PhD in Physics at Tufts University in Boston. His dissertation research was conducted at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in Berkeley, CA.
…
While in the Boston area, daughters Valerie and Amy were born.
In 1964, Paul and Margaret moved their young family to Cedar Rapids, as he had been offered a position as a professor at Coe College, where he remained until his retirement in 1999.
Paul enjoyed teaching Introduction to Liberal Arts as well as his specialties of physics and astronomy. He enjoyed mentoring his students, with a special focus on helping young women feel comfortable in the physics department.
He helped establish the first computer center at Coe, built a cardboard geodesic dome planetarium, and projected solar eclipses onto the wall at the far end of Peterson Hall so hundreds of students could safely observe. He also hosted birthday parties for his daughters in the computer, physics and astronomy labs.
A highlight of his professional career was a People-To-People International trip to Russia and China during his sabbatical in 1983. He was one of 30 U.S. science teachers selected to share experiences and ideas on improving the teaching of science with Russian and Chinese counterparts.
Paul was a lifelong crusader for social justice, positive human relationships, peace and the environment.
Both Paul and Margaret were active first at First Congregational Church and then at Central Park Presbyterian Church. Paul was involved in everything from pastor recruitment to furnace replacement committees.
They were also active in the United Nations Association, and Women for Peace (now Workers for Peace).
Paul was a prolific writer of letters to the editor on topics of religion, politics, personal and community integrity, and conflict resolution. He also published his many writings at www.essayz.com, and enlisted the help of students and other young people to maintain that site.
Paul was also active in the Democratic Party.
He served on the committee that reorganized the caucuses between 1968 and 1972, and as secretary and parliamentarian for conventions at the county, district, and state levels. In 1996, he received the Iowa Democratic Party’s Dixon Terry Award for outstanding service as a party activist. In 2008, he volunteered at the Democratic National Convention in Denver that nominated Barack Obama.
The whole family enjoyed vacation tent-camping in the Rocky Mountains and southwest deserts of Colorado, as well as in local, county and state parks.
In 2004, Paul and Margaret moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, after having done extensive research to select the most appropriate city for their retirement.
There, they made new friends at Plymouth United Church of Christ, and helped establish a new chapter of the United Nations Association.
When it became necessary, friends helped them move to Good Samaritan Assisted Living, and then briefly to Collinwood Memory Care in Fort Collins.
In April 2019, their daughters moved them back to the Cedar Rapids area to be able to spend more time with them as their dementias progressed.
Paul is survived by his wife Margaret, daughters Valerie Smith and Amy (Rik) Dorff, grandsons Nik and Luke Dorff (all local), siblings Bob (Elaine) Smith (MN), Joanne (Carol-deceased) Drake (CO), Dave (Linda) Smith (WI) and Karl (Maureen) Smith (NJ), sister-in-law Reta Smith (WI), 10 nieces and one nephew. He was predeceased by his parents and oldest brother Pryor T. Smith, Jr.
Per his wishes, he has been cremated. A Celebration of Life will be held in late April. For more information or to share your memories, please visit drpaulsmithcelebrationoflife.net
Thank you to the staff of Promise House and the Hiawatha Care Center, and to the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists et. al. at St. Luke’s Hospital for all of their kind care.
In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing in his memory to any of the organizations mentioned above. (Their contact information will be added as we collect it. Click here for those we currently know. If you find one, please share in “Leave a Reply” below).
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Dr. Paul A. Smith Celebration of Life 
This is a wonderful and remarkable celebration of Paul’s life and times. Valerie and Amy have done him and all of us a great service in preparing this memorial. We are all very proud of the loving care they have provided Paul and Margaret in their declining years. Thank you both, and pass the sentiment on to all who have helped and contributed. We will miss Paul greatly, but are grateful for the privilege of having been part of his life and times. Farewell! With love, Karl, Maureen, Elizabeth and Anni
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Such a nice summary of an amazing life well-lived! My favorite memory of Uncle Paul was during a visit to our house in Wisconsin. He sat at the kitchen table with his nieces and shaved some iron filings onto a piece of paper. Hidden under the paper was a magnet that he would move back and forth. The iron filings moved across the paper as he moved the magnet. Magic! The filings looked like pine trees, so he added salt to the paper and it became pine trees marching through snow! We were having a blast, and he was sharing his love of science with young girls. I also thought it was pretty cool to have an uncle who had studied bubbles!
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Paul could count to 100 before he was four years old. I remember. Thanks for the memories. Sis (Joanne Drake)
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One story dad told about himself that was too long to include in the obituary was:
“On my own initiative I measured the area of the large living area tiled floor (of the house in Columbia); a combination of rectangles and triangles calculated individually and added to get the total area in square inches; with no electronic calculators or slide rules to help me. The only help I got in my own project at about age six was that my father pointed out that my triangles were half of long rectangles in area.”
– from his “How I want to be remembered” document, written in July, 2016
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This is such a nicely-done synopsis of Paul’s life. I’ll keep checking back for more photos! I appreciate all that Paul did for the peace community in Ft. Collins while he and Margaret were here – and especially for “Salon duc Tape”, a public forum for the discussion of issues related to peace, social justice, and the environment that has been going strong since 2003. Rest in peace, Paul.
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This is an amazing “Cliff Notes” of Paul’s life, interests, and intellect; thank you! We knew Paul and Margaret at Central Park Presbyterian Church; I worked and talked more with Margaret. We have great admiration for their tireless activism and contributions. Our best wishes to you and to Margaret as your lives move forward.
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I remember VIVIDLY passing him on the Coe College campus and talking. Rest in peace my friend!!
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I have many memories of Paul from the time we both taught at Coe College. I admired his passion, conviction and involvement for the causes he believed in. My condolences to Margaret, Valerie, and Amy, and all friends and relations who knew and loved Paul.
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Paul and Margaret were kind to us when Barbara and I arrived in Cedar Rapids in 1979. Their house was the first we visited. I taight with Paul for 16 years. He was a creative spirit in many respects. He loved to explain physics to all.
Over the years since his retirement he visited the physics department at Coe several times. He always made supportive comments about the developments within our department.
He will be missed.
Steve Feller
Coe College Physics
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Astrophotography commentary:
The Rock Island Argus article about my brother Paul’s construction of astro-cameras and a telescope in 1951 did not mention the hours of labor that went into making the telescope. His Uncle Joe Brubaker, a noted inventor (he co-developed the first handheld endoscopic camera, with the first high quality photos of the bronchial tree and the larynx in 1941) had loaned him a three-volume book on amateur telescope making. Paul learned from that how to grind a parabolic 6-inch mirror using two very thick 6-inch diameter glass blocks and a series of finer and finer grade jeweler’s rouge.
He spent, I think, hundreds of hours polishing two of the glass blanks together with a precise circular motion, until he achieved a perfectly polished parabolic concave blank, which he silver-plated and installed in the telescope tube to collect and focus the light from the stars. I believe a blank from his first effort developed a crack in the glass, and he had to start over after hours of tedious labor. Perseverance and dedication!
When we moved from Geneseo to Weyauwega, WIsconsin, in 1953, Paul was going to Park College, and the telescope and barrel came along with us, and was set up in the backyard between the Church, the Manse, and the mulberry trees. My Brother Dave and I spent many nighttime hours using the reflecting telescope Paul made, observing detailed features of the Moon, Jupiter’s moons, Saturn’s rings, the Andromeda galaxy, and many other fascinating celestial objectives.
After a move to another town, the telescope and barrel were mounted on the flat roof of the Church’s tower there, and I remember viewing sunspots by image projection onto a paper screen. I believe the the well-traveled telescope was eventually returned to Paul. Paul’s interest in astronomy rubbed off on me, and I continue to be intrigued by celestial, galactic and universal features and events. I will always be grateful to Paul for instilling in me a curiosity to discover the unknown in our universe.
Others in the family may have additional insights into this aspect of Paul’s life; I welcome any corrections to any inaccuracies in my recounting of events.
Paul’s light shone brightly, vanquishing the darkness wherever his spirit led him.
Paul’s Brother, Karl
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Thanks for all the details, Karl! You are correct that the telescope was eventually returned to Paul. We have it in the storage shed here in Hiawatha. I’m hoping to be able to set it up at the Celebration(s) of life – as a display if not in a functional way…
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Thanks to Valerie & Amy for this detailed, delightful summary of a wonderful life, well-lived. I knew Paul through our mutual involvement at Plymouth United Church of Christ in Fort Collins, as well as the League of Women Voters. I so admired Paul for his intelligence & interest/concern for social justice issues. Both he & Margaret were leaders in the UN group in our community, helping to facilitate discussions about US-UN relations & fostering peace. He was a gentle, kind soul, & we will all miss him.
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I’ve been thinking about Paul for almost two weeks now since hearing that he’d passed. I attended Coe College from 1996-2000, but have remained in touch with Paul and Margaret through the years since.
I took an Astronomy class from Paul, but studied sociology as my major. Still, Paul will always serve as one my favorite professors from Coe. I was one of a few students who had helped with the ESSAYZ.COM system and spent many many hours typing in essays or editing them online — all in DOS. In conjunction with a winter course taught at Coe, I also helped to build the first website for http://www.essayz.com.
My husband (whom I met at Coe) and I had visited with Paul and Margaret several times since they retired in Fort Collins, CO, but the last time was late 2017 after the birth of our fourth child. We attended church with them, had a wonderful meal together, and returned them to their assisted living facility. I didn’t know that they moved back to Iowa in 2019, but was so glad to learn that news. Anytime we connected with Paul and Margaret, they were so proud to provide a full update on what Valerie, Amy and her family were up to.
I will always remember Dr. Paul Smith as one of the smartest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. And I’ll admit, during my time assisting with the Essays System, I remained focused on the technical work of organizing and editing Paul’s writing. Now, much more mature and in my 40s, I read some of his essays and regret that didn’t have the mental bandwidth to understand his writing as I do now. I look forward to digging in and continuing to learn from a great thinker and mentor. Also, Margaret has been one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known. She has the best sense of humor and perspective about life. I’ve always loved the time we’ve been able to spend with her.
Thank you to Valerie and Amy for sharing this page and such a great tribute to Paul Smith. His influence in the world will definitely live on.
I dug through boxes to find a picture of Paul and I that was taken at his retirement from Coe — I will attempt to find a place to share it on Facebook.
REST IN PEACE & POWER, DR. PAUL A. SMITH! ALL OUR LOVE TO YOU AND TO MARGARET — FOREVER!
SHALOM!
Lori & Sam Guasta
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