UPDATE: Solemn send off for Captain Ira L. Smith
Many families, friends, boat captains, businesspersons and government officials from near and far packed the St George’s Episcopal Church in Road Town on Friday, April 20, 2018, for the late Smith’s funeral service.
He was born on April 18, 1938, and died on April 5, 2018.
The Territory’s first local Architect and Town Planner was educated and a graduate of the New York Institute of Technology with high honours of Summa Cum Laude. The father, husband and grandfather was eulogised by one of his daughters Marjorie E. Smith.
His pallbearers were a mixture of current boat captains and family members all decked out in their white captain uniforms with hats. The funeral service which was officiated by Reverends Ian E. Rock PhD. and Cannon Julian Clarke was both moving and honest.
Ira wanted honest government
In saying he was breaking with confessional tradition, Reverend Rock told the congregation that the late Ira Smith had told him that, “I will not vote for any party who is not willing to introduced integrity legislation.” In addition, he said the deceased who is the first cousin of the current Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL) who was there at the time believed that “our Government has too much corruption in it”.
The man of the cloth Dr Rock challenged the Premier to address the matter. Once the service was over Captain Smith took his final sail on the Tortola Fast Ferry, one of many fleets of vessels from the Ferry Company he founded in 1986 surrounded by captains and crew where the body was transported by sea to West End, the final resting place.
He was then laid to rest at the family burial ground in Towers West End, on the main Island of Tortola.
Mr Smith is survived by his wife Kather N. Smith, mother Enelle Smith, six sons and three daughters, as well as Sister Irma B. Smith and Brother Edward R. Smith.
See article published on April 19, 2018
Captain Ira L. Smith will be laid to rest Friday, April 20, 2018
-businessman, first local Architect & Town Planner
It will be another sad day for family, friends and former employees, as yet another illustrious son of the soil and an indigenous Virgin Islander is laid to rest.
The Virgin Islands (VI) first local Architect and Town Planner, the late Ira Leopold Smith will be buried on Friday, April 20, 2018. He died on Thursday, April 5, 2018, at Peebles Hospital after being ill for some time. He was 79 years old, having been born on April 18, 1938.
The boat Captain, pioneer, former civil servant and businessman would have been celebrating his 80th birthday yesterday, if he was alive.
The funeral details
The funeral programme will start with a viewing of the body from 9 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. this Friday at the Road Town Anglican church on Main Street in Road Town the capital city.
The service will start at 10:30 A.M. and the interment will be at the family’s private burial grounds in Towers, West End, Tortola. The founder of Smith’s Ferry Service is survived by his wife Mrs Kather N. Maduro-Smith, a former comptroller of customs and nine children, and his mother Ellen Smith who will turn 100 in December of this year.
In 1986 the late Captain founded Smith’s Ferry Service, which provides modern sea travel between the greater Virgin Islands. Smith’s Ferry Service, was also another pioneer with inter islands sea transportation between Tortola, Virgin Gorda and Anegada.
According to one of his sons, Henry W. Smith aka ‘Will’, his dad in the 1960s used to build sailboats, a skill he learnt from his late father Leopold Smith and transported residents to Virgin Gorda.
Mr Smith was also passionate about his country and political issues and from the late 1990s was a voice on radio and TV shows challenging the status quo, and was never afraid to speak his mind and fight for people.
His signature on the Road Town Skyline
One of his many lasting legacies will be in the professional area of Architecture where his signature can be seen on many buildings on Tortola. He was the architect that designed the Social Security Building (SSB), and the Sir Rupert Briercliffe Hall both in Road Town and was the first project manager of the old Peebles Hospital in the 1980s.
The professional American trained Architect also did the drawings for the Elmore Stoutt High School L-shaped building that can be seen from the Sunday Morning Well, along with many other public projects both on Tortola and Virgin Gorda. The late Mr Smith also encouraged and mentored many of the architects and young boat captains that came after him.
The funeral service is expected to be another great outpouring from all walks of life from both the professional class, elected officials, as well as many persons in the boating sector and sea captains young and old decked out in uniforms.
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