Above all else, George Smith was a man who loved Maine
Courtesy / George Smith family
George Smith, seated, and his family celebrate establishment of the Ezra Smith Wildlife Conservation Area in 2018, on land in Mount Vernon donated by Smith to the Kennebec Land Trust and named in honor of his father.
George Smith has been described largely as an outdoorsman, a fierce advocate for conservation and other outdoor causes in Maine.
But Smith, who died Friday of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, was much more. He was a columnist and blogger who weighed in on a variety of issues affecting Maine. He was an avid reader, and many Maine authors benefited from his generous book reviews.
He also was a huge booster of Maine's hospitality industry, writing about his food and lodging experiences with his wife, Linda, in the "Travelin' Mainers" column in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel for many years.
He did it all with great enthusiasm and a huge does of positivity, because Smith was, at heart, a Mainer first, and advocate of all that makes Maine special.
Smith was executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine for 18 years, from 1993 to 2011. Besides his Travelin' Mainers column, he also wrote op-eds for the Kennebec Journal, stemming back to before his SAM role. In the past decade-plus, he'd become a prolific blogger, weighing in on outdoors, energy, political issues and more from a robust website.
He was one of those people who everyone seemed to know and, a rarer thing, like.
“George loved Maine. And Maine loved George," Gov. Janet Mills said Friday. "I am deeply saddened by his passing. An avid sportsman, a prolific writer, and a good-natured friend to all, George Smith was the very embodiment of the character of Maine: strong but kind, independent but compassionate, wise but humble.
"George’s love and respect for our great state is only surpassed by the love its people, including this governor and many governors before me, had for him. His was a life so fully and so well lived, even as he fought ALS with his characteristic grit, fortitude, and courage to the very end."
Enthusiasm for things big and small
I knew George in my role as news editor at the KJ and Sentinel several years ago, but, as with so many things related to Smith, it was about more than that.
In 2014, he persuaded me to write a column about his father's post-retirement career as an artist. Ezra Smith, then 90, was a little shy about talking, but George made it happen, the three of us meeting for a long session at the Post Office Cafe in Mount Vernon, where the elder Smith's art was on display.
While Ezra Smith downplayed the art, George gushed about it. When George pointed out the art was for sale, Ezra said it wasn't. When George insisted it was, Ezra said, "I wouldn't pay for it." But George wouldn't be deterred. "It's incredible stuff," he said several times.
That encounter was quintessential George Smith — enthusiastic, positive, always ready to see the upside, no matter the situation.
When Smith sought support in donating his 125-acre Mount Vernon woodlot to the Kennebec Land Trust in 2017, his love for the lot was obvious. "My woodlot is an amazing place, with outstanding wildlife habitat including a bog, beaver flowage, softwood and hardwood groves, lots of cedar, and more," he wrote on his blog. Every kind of wildlife critter lives there.
"Once I was sitting on the ground with my back up against a tree and an ermine started sprinting back and forth in front of me," he wrote. "It got to within about 10 yards, turned my way, and ran right up my leg, stopping on my chest. At that point it decided I wasn’t a tree and jumped off. Amazing!"
His enthusiasm for the small things helped others see what he saw, what made the land special. But, of course, it wasn't just the outdoors. In his column, every stay was wonderful, every meal was amazing, whether it was at a sporting camp or an Augusta Thai restaurant.
I used to joke with him that my edits included an "exclamation point-ectomy." He'd just laugh.
George and I kept in touch periodically by email, the last time was April 2020, and he was the same old enthusiastic George. "Great to hear from you!"
Mills, in her statement Friday, said the best way to honor Smith's legacy would be "by exploring and loving the camps and cottages, diners, inns, lakes and lands — everything that makes Maine this special place — as much as he did."
'George was a gift'
Every experience in George Smith's world had something positive to take away from it. And that positive attitude didn't disappear as his illness, diagnosed in 2017, slowed him down.
Diane Atwood, a journalist, blogger and podcaster on health issues, forged a relationship with Smith after his ALS diagnosis. In 2018, she wrote a blog post, and interviewed him on her podcast about his diagnosis, which he said wouldn't define him.
Last June, she caught up with him and has him for his thoughts, given the pandemic. He biggest concern was for the Maine outdoors industry and the Maine guides who'd lost businesses because of the pandemic.
But, typical George Smith, he found the positives.
"Of course, not everything has been bad in this pandemic — and I’m not talking just about wildlife," he wrote. "So many great Mainers have reached out to help their family, friends, and neighbors."
Smith, Atwood said today, "was kind, generous, welcoming and fun to be with. He was also one of the most optimistic individuals I’ve ever met. The last time I interviewed him, he was up against all kinds of ALS challenges and yet he told me he was lucky. He said three of his friends had died suddenly, but he’d been given the gift of time to spend with family and friends and to continue writing.
"To me, George, himself, was a gift," she said.
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