Virgil SMITH 1915-1981

SMITH, CHRISTIANSEN, STEIG, BONDE

Posted By: Ruth Tower (email)
Date: 8/5/2005 at 13:33:14

Virgil Smith, 66, dies, services to be Monday--Funeral services for Virgil Smith, 66, of Humboldt, will be held at 2 p.m. Monday (21 September 1981), at the Congregational United Church of Christ, with Rev. Thomas Zoelzer fficiating. Burial will be in Indian Mound Cemetery, with military rites by Adams American Legion Post 119. Mr. Smith died Friday morning at Trinity Regional Hospital in Fort Dodge, following a lengthy illness. There will be a Masonic service at Lindhart Funeral Home at 8 p.m., ad friends may call after 2 p.m. Sunday.

He is survived by his wife, Jan; two brothers, Emery Christiansen of Rockwell City, and Leo Christiansen of Havelock; and one sister, Miss Joan Christiansen of Humboldt.

Virgil Smith was born in Humboldt, May 21, 1915, to Elmer and Victoria Bonde Smith. He grew up at Rutland and attended Rutland school and graduated there. He was employed by the Chicago Northwestern Railroad and then served in the U.S. Army from April 1941 to Sept. 1945. He was taken prisoner of war in 1943 in Africa and was held prisoner in Germany until 1945. He married Jan Steig, Aug. 13, 1946. He was employed by the U.S. Postal Service as a carrier and then served in the Korean conflict from 1950 to 1952. Following his discharge he was city mail carrier and became rural carrier in 1955, retiring in 1975. He spent 32 years in various carrier capacity in Humboldt County. He served on the Humboldt City Council, was a member of the American Legion Adams Post 119, was a member of the VFW and Masonic Lodge and was a former Rotarian.

In 1975 he was elected to the Humboldt City Council and served two terms before running for mayor in 1979. Smith outpolled two other mayoral candidates, but a technicality forced a run-off election with incumbent mayor LeRoy Jorgensen which Jorgensen won. Smith also served on the Humboldt County Law Enforcement Commission and the County Landfill Commission, and was instrumental in locating a site for a new county landfill.

(Unnamed, undated newspaper clipping)