My father, the Rev Canon Jeffry Smith, who has died of cancer aged 66, was a caring man with a big heart and a big beard. Jeffry lived a life of adventure and of ordained ministry, in California, England, Bermuda and Scotland.
Born in Inglewood, California, to Roger Smith, a minor-league baseball player turned schoolteacher, and Marguerite (nee Beverly), a schoolteacher, Jeffry went to Claremont high school.
He worked from a young age, meeting Barbara Hone by chance while doing handyman jobs, and they married in 1977. He supported himself through his education, obtaining his BA in history and economics at Pitzer College, California, and theological education at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, with an exchange to Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire.
Ordained deacon in the Episcopalian church in 1986 and priest in 1987, he served in the parish of St Paul’s, Visalia, California. He felt a sense of belonging in the UK, first experienced in Oxfordshire, and after a curacy at St Francis, Frimley, Surrey (1987-92), became rector of nearby East and West Clandon, where our family spent formative years.
In 2003, Jeffry and Barbara moved to Devon, where he worked in chaplaincy at HMP Channings Wood, near Newton Abbot. They then moved to Bermuda, where Jeffry served as canon residentiary at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.
On returning to the UK in 2007, he finished his labours among the beautiful coasts and hills of Northumberland. He joined the diocese of Newcastle and then, in a final position before retirement, crossed the river Tweed as rector of St Mary and All Souls, Coldstream, in the Scottish Episcopal Church’s diocese of Edinburgh.
Throughout his ministry, Jeffry looked beyond the parish; meeting and connecting with people from different backgrounds and travelling the world. He visited and served at St Mary the Virgin, Belgrade, Serbia. Invited by a friend from Malawi, he travelled there for a month of teaching and preaching. He raised funds to build a school in Kenya. He often walked long distance routes, including the Pilgrim’s Way from Winchester to Canterbury, the Camino from Porto, Portugal, to Santiago de Campostela, Spain, and the route to the Black Madonna icon of Częstochowa, Poland. He is fondly remembered for his geniality and love of life.
He is survived by Barbara, his daughters, Laura and me, and grandchildren, Thomas, Naomi, Anna-Maria, Lydia and Ezra.
