Obituary of David Bradley Smith

August 3, 1949 - October 24, 2019 There will be a celebration of life service for David on Saturday, November 2, 2019 at 2:00pm at the Milwaukie Senior Center (5440 SE Kellogg Creek Drive, Milwaukie, OR 97222). David, known to everyone as Dave, died of natural causes. Dave was born in Portland, Oregon on August 3, 1949 and lived his whole life in, or close to, his home town. He graduated from Cleveland High School in 1967 and then worked to put himself through college at first Mt. Hood Community College, where he played on the basketball team, and then at Portland State University, where he completed his undergraduate degree. He continued his education later in life at Warner Pacific College, where he received his Master’s Degree in 2008. Dave met and married his wife Kathy while working together at Omark Industries. They were happily married for 43 years. Dave was the proud father of two daughters, Shannon Turk & Jaimie Lyke, and a son, Kyle Smith and had five wonderful granddaughters, Lanie & Emma Turk and Chelsea, Kendall & Autumn Lyke, as well as one great-grandson, Taven Turk. From the outside he could appear to be a stoic, quiet man, but his family knew his softer side and, whether he was helping them learn to shoot a free throw or sneaking M&Ms to the grandkids, he made sure they knew they were loved, well provided for and taken care of. Dave worked for Omark/Blount International for his entire working career of 45 years, only recently retired in 2015. He worked his way into upper management and his work took him to Brazil, Mexico, China, France and Puerto Rico to help oversee Blount’s foreign branches. He was especially liked by his co-workers who say he was a very funny guy who always found a way to make them feel important and valued. He had a tremendous work ethic and enjoyed volunteering for several different organizations - only rarely finding time for some rest and relaxation by working outside in his yard. Even at 70 Dave still enjoyed some basketball, running, exercising every day, and recently tried his very large hand at pickle ball. Though he liked others to think he was extremely health conscious, he wasn’t above stashing a can or two of Mountain Dew in his duffel bag to rehydrate after a workout. Dave was a very tall, quiet man who, to those who didn’t know him, could appear to be standing off in his own world - but then he would pipe in with a wry joke that would set everyone to laughing and showing just how truly involved in life he really was. He leaves a very tall hole in all of our lives.