Gordon G. Smith (1937-2008) – Horseman, Scholar, NSL Board Member and Friend

Gordon G. Smith (1937-2008) with fiancé Judy Allen. Photo courtesy Douglas Lees.

On September 21, the NSL community lost a dear friend. Gordon Grenville Smith of Casanova, Va., a member of the Library’s Board of Directors and dedicated volunteer and supporter of the Library, died at age 71 as a result of injuries sustained in a foxhunting accident.

Mr. Smith, who joined the NSL’s Board of Directors in May 2008, was born in Montclair, N.J. in 1937. He received his Bachelor’s of Science in Agriculture from Michigan State University, served in the Army National Guard, and earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. He worked for Johnson & Johnson, owned and operated Smith Recreational Vehicles in Branchburg Township, N.J., and later built and later developed and managed the Somerset Medical Office Park in Somerville, N.J.

It was in New Jersey’s Amwell Valley that Mr. Smith developed a lifelong love for foxhunting, horses, and hounds. For nine years, Mr. Smith was the MFH of the Amwell Valley Hounds. While living in the area, he was instrumental in saving important farmland from development. On his 70-acre farm, Mr. Smith bred and raised Thoroughbred/Trakhener sport horses as hunters and eventers and maintained a kennel of crossbred foxhounds. He had a keen eye and encyclopedic knowledge of foxhounds and their history, and as recently as 2007 judged the Cross-Bred Ring at the Virginia Hound Show at Morven Park in Leesburg.

Mr. Smith first visited the National Sporting Library in the 1990’s while traveling to Middleburg to foxhunt. He was a NSL member since 1993 and joined the Chairman’s Council at its inception in 2000. After moving to the area in 2000, he served as president of the Bull Run Hunt for many years. He hunted extensively throughout Northern Virginia and abroad in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and was a member of the Old Dominion Hounds and the Warrenton and Casanova Hunts.

An enthusiastic researcher, Mr. Smith delved deeply into the NSL’s rich book and archival collections on foxhunting. A frequent presence among the Library’s stacks, Mr. Smith researched and wrote a history of the Old Dominion Hounds which will be published as part of the Masters of Foxhounds Association’s forthcoming centennial book. At the time of his death, Mr. Smith was writing a manuscript on the long history of foxhunting in Northern Virginia.

As a Library volunteer, Mr. Smith assisted Librarian Lisa Campbell on the description and identification of archival collections. He undertook the complicated work of composing a finding aid for the sixteen boxes that comprise the Alexander Mackay-Smith Papers. Mackay-Smith, co-founder of the Library, was a prolific historian and author of several books on foxhunting and racing, including The American Foxhound 1747 to 1967. Mr. Smith also worked on the Marshall Hawkins photographic collection, and met with former members of the Warrenton Hunt who assisted him in identifying people in the photographs.

Mr. Smith is survived by his fiancè, Judy Allen of Casanova; his two children, Elizabeth Alden Smith of Orlean, Va., and Gordon G. Smith, Jr., of Bloomfield, Mich.; his sister, Linda Stedman Montague of St. Michaels, Md.; and three grandchildren, Max, Chase, and Kali.

A memorial service was held on October 17 at Grace Episcopal Church in The Plains.

Return to Home Page .