Smith, Lauren Ashley 1924-2011
SMITH, COOK, MILLS, PRINGLE, STEFFENHAGEN, RODNEY
Posted By: Ruth Maring - VOLUNTEER
Date: 2/23/2011 at 15:21:03
Lauren Ashley Smith - 86
11/30/1924 - 2/3/2011Clinton - Lauren Ashley Smith, age 86, a well known Clinton attorney, clergyman and writer died Thursday, February 3, 2011 at the Alverno Health Care Facility. Funeral services will be held at 1:30 P.M. on Monday, February 7th at the Pape Funeral Home. Friends may call from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. Sunday at the funeral home. Burial will be in Oakland Cemetery.
Lauren was born in Clinton on November 30, 1924, the son of William Thomas Roy Smith and Ethel Cook Smith. He married Barbara Ann Mills in Minneapolis on August 22, 1947. They had three children, Christopher (Mary Beth) Smith of Menomonie, WI, Laura (Lynn) Pringle of Oklahoma City and William Thomas Roy (Jeanne) Smith who preceded in him in death. Along with his wife, Barbara, Lauren is also survived by his five grandchildren; Allison Smith (Seth) Steffenhagen of St. Paul, MN, Anna Smith of Menomonie, Susanne (Daniel Rodney) Smith of Chicago, Mile Thomas Pringle of Kansas City and Brian Lee Smith of Boise, ID and a great grand daughter, Eleanore Rodney.
He was valedictorian of the Clinton High School Class of 1943. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota in 1946 and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1949. He did special graduate studies in law, theology, physics and creative philosophical writing at the University of Chicago. He received a Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1950 and was ordained a Presbyterian minister at First Presbyterian Church in Clinton on April 17, 1950.
He served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Fredonia, Kansas, 1950-52, and as pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Lamar Colorado, 1952-57 during which time he was also moderator of the Presbytery of Pueblo. He served as pastor of Community Congregational Church in Clinton, 1975-80 and had at-large ministerial status with the Presbytery of East Iowa, and was a member of the Clinton Ministerial Association. In 1992 he was named a Quaker International Yokefellow.
He was a senior associate of the Palo Alto, California based Foresight Institute. He was active among Catholic, Episcopal, and Quaker contemplatives and was a member of New York City based Franciscans International. Politically independent, he moved under what he styled “Ministries of Reconciliation.” For many years he was an active member of the Washington, D.C., based International Platform Association. He was also a member of the St. Andrew Society of New York City.
Also active as a journalist and writer, for several years he was a member of the editorial staff of a daily newspaper, The Commercial, at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In addition to the Commercial his work also appeared in Christian Century and Time magazine and the Denver Post. From 1978-82 he was United States Bureau Chief for Bangalore based Press and News of India. He was co-author of a book, “India, On to New Horizons,” published in India.
For many years he wrote extensively for many publications under the name “Christopher Crow,” a pseudonym he used “because crows, although often unpopular, are known to ornithologists as among our most intelligent birds”. His biography was carried by Marquis, Who’s-Who-in-America, Who’s-Who-in-the-World, and their Who’s-Who-in-American Law.
He carried out special projects in the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China and India and Europe. In 1981 with Indira Gandhi’s Minister of Science he co-sponsored the first all-India Energy Conference bringing together over 400 Indian engineers in Bangalore to discuss modern energy concepts. In 1983 he visited all of the law schools and every law professor in China and shared in offering full scholarships to the first of what became over 2000 Chinese law students to attend American law schools.
In local community affairs he had served as chairperson of the Clinton County Red Cross, Valley District of the Boy Scouts, the former Clinton Council of Churches, was a past president of Horace Mann School P.T.A. and the City P.T.A. Council. He was an Associate of the Clinton Franciscans and a member of Jesus Christ Prince of Peace Parish.
An outdoor enthusiast, for a number of years he boated on Chesapeake Bay, the Pacific Ocean out of Santa Barbara and on Lake Champlain at Princeton University’s Corlear Bay Club as well as on Lake Michigan’s Green Bay and the Mississippi River.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his son William and a brother. Online condolences may be left atwww.papefh.com
http://www.papefh.com/obits/Default.aspx
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