Lester H. Smith, Jr.
May 24, 1930 ~ July 20, 2026
Born in:
McMinnville, Tennessee
Resided in:
Nashville, Tennessee
Lester H. Smith, Jr., age 96, died on July 20, 2026 at Richland Place Health Care Center in Nashville, TN.
He is survived by his wife of 73 years, Kathryn Walston Smith, and by daughters Shanon Smith Smith (Chris), Lacey Smith Scully, and Rachel Smith McCaskill; grandchildren Courtney Smith, Casey Christian, Preston Smith (Katie), Savannah Andrews (Justin) all of Dallas, TX; Robert Scully (Miharu) of Tokyo, Japan, Kathryn Hurley (Cal) of Cartersville, GA; Will McCaskill (Samantha), Jackson McCaskill, and Grace Powell (John) of Nashville, as well as 10 great-grandchildren.
Born in McMinnville, TN on May 24, 1930, he was the son of Lester and Katheryne Smith of Columbia, TN. Lester graduated from Columbia High School and continued his education at Vanderbilt University, majoring in Electrical Engineering.
He was a founding partner of Smith Seckman Reid Inc., Consulting Engineers. He served as President of Consulting Engineers of Tennessee and, later, as President of The American Consulting Engineers Council.
Lester spent two years in the Air Force during the Korean War, enjoying the beauty of Alaska while serving. His love of flying developed early – soloing in a plane even before obtaining a driver’s license. Lester enjoyed hiking, fishing, and camping, preferring to be out of doors.
He worshipped God at Calvary United Methodist Church in Nashville for more than 60 years. The family will receive visitors there on Saturday September 19th beginning at 12:30 with a memorial service to follow at 2 pm.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Calvary United Methodist Church, Ronald McDonald House, Community Care Fellowship or the charity of your choice.
Arrangements in the care of Compassion Funeral & Cremation Services, Nashville, TN (615) 857-9955. We proudly remain locally owned & operated.
Services
Visitation: September 19, 2026 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Calvary United Methodist Church
3701 Hillsboro PIke
Nashville, TN 37215
Memorial Service: September 19, 2026 2:00 pm
Calvary United Methodist Church
3701 Hillsboro PIke
Nashville, TN 37215
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Kathryn,
I was so sorry to hear of Lester’s passing. Please accept my deepest sympathy at the loss of this wonderful man.
Thinking of you and your family and wishing you comfort.
What a wonderful man! I feel so fortunate to have had Lester in my life. Cousins, friends. Calls regularly, Christmas visits with him and Beezy ,memories galore.
Lester was so incredibly kind, curious and helpful. One of my great remembrances was his phone call to me well over 40 years ago asking what provisions for retirement planning were provided for his foreign missionary cousin Janie House. Our annual Christmas visits in Nashville were more them asking about us than keeping any spotlight on Beezy and Lester. I shall always cherish those visits with his smile and twinkling eyes of interest and care for extended family.
I loved Lester. Working for SSR after bartending at Dalt’s & basically hired over the bar. Lester was a wonderful man, serious & still fun loving. He guided me to do what is right & not necessarily by the rules. But right. Life was so much better with him in my life. Lester, you are so missed. Enjoy heaven.
Lester and I started having annual lunches in 2014. Back then it was always us and Clarence. If one of us couldn’t make then we would move the date a day or more.
Since 2017 we have had lunch together as close to quarterly as we could manage our schedules. Lester stayed remarkably busy tending to the needs of others as he basically always has. Just before COVID we discussed having a “surprise mystery guest”join us. Those were such wonderful times. The 2 most memorable, based on Lester’s reactions, were the days that Ryan Reid could join us and then the larger turnout was when Dick Miller’s schedule finally coordinated!! You will have to ask me in person to tell you more about how hard and why LHS laughed so hard immediately after that lunch. I believe it was Frank P and Clarence and Randall that joined us that day.
So often he would walk to our destination while occasionally he may request a ride home if it started raining. He drove to all of the early events but eventually decided to stop driving so he simply ride with me.
The other fantastic story was about the list he copied one weekend day and left the originals in the copy machine. I returned the list to his desk drawer before work Monday but he did come to talk to me about it.