Tarleton ‘Tee’ Smith

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Monday, 29 October 2012 14:05

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    Services have been scheduled for Tarleton Friend “Tee” Smith, a wildlife biologist and big game master guide who researched and wrote about deer management for much of his life.
    A short graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31, at Sitka National Cemetery followed by a reception at Sitka Lutheran Church. Pastor Sandra Rudd will officiate.
    Tee died Oct. 23 at age 96.
    He was born May 9, 1916, in Waco, Texas, the son of Norman and Louise (Morrow) Smith.
    He early on took an interest in the abundance of birds and small animals in the area. In Boy Scouts he worked on merit badges that concerned wildlife; and when he read the writings of the curator of the museum at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, who was working on a confirmed list of the birds and reptiles of McClennan County, Texas, Tee added seven birds to the list.
    After attending Baylor University he received a bachelor’s degree in biology from  the University of Texas. He later attended Texas A&M where he received his master’s degree in fish and game.
    During World War II he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, stationed in France. On the ship going to Europe in 1944, he met an Army nurse, Doris Ruth Gregg. They were married Nov. 9, 1945, in  Alabama.
    Tee had heard from friends in his Army unit about the fishing and hunting in Alaska, so in 1946 he headed to the state and got a job with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The family lived first in Juneau then in Petersburg, where he was district manager. With statehood Jan. 1, 1968, his federal job ended and Tee accepted a position doing marine research in Annapolis, Md. But the family missed Alaska and in less than a year returned first to Petersburg and then to Sitka in 1970, where he became a big game master guide. He retired in 1990.
    He was a member of the Pioneers of Alaska, the Elks Lodge, Fish and Game Advisory Board and, in Petersburg, the school board.
    “It is an understatement just to say that Tee was an avid hunter and fisherman,” his family said. “He was an outdoor expert and a true sportsman who valued fair play and the resource beyond his own success.”
    His main interest was deer management theory, and part of his research  included a report on “The Theory of Deer Irruptions Challenged and Its Purpose Reconsidered,” published this year.
    Tee is survived by his wife, Doris Smith, Sitka; children Victor Smith and his wife Phebe of Friday Harbor, Wash., Ray Smith and wife Johanna of Juneau, and Marilyn Hendrick Sr. and husband John of  Bellingham, Wash.; and grandchildren Andean Lucas and husband Troy of Missoula, Mont., Alex Smith and wife Rose of Santa Rosa, Calif., Amber Butler and husband David of Seattle, Kiersten Johnson and husband Mark of Seattle, and Dorian Smith of Seattle.
    The great-grandchildren are Roxanna, Scarlet and Annabelle Smith of Santa Rosa; Elliot and Maisyn Johnson of Seattle; Mae Butler of Seattle; and Brody and Jett Miller of Missoula.
    The family expressed its thanks to the nurses at Sitka Community Hospital, and the visiting nurses at Home  Health Care.

   
   

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