William E. Smith

William Edward “Smitty” Smith passed away on December 11th, 2023, in his home in Livingston, Montana. He had a hard fight against metastatic esophageal cancer and passed away peacefully after hospice came in. 

He was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania to his parents Milton Smith and Irene Smith on April 30th, 1950. His family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina when he was 3 years old. He graduated from Charlotte high school and then went on to start a construction company once he graduated high school. When he was 23 years old he decided to attend The University of North Carolina where he received a double major in Mechanical and Civil Engineering. 

He had his first daughter Alithea Dickey in April of 1973. After completing college at UNC, he got a job in San Jose, California at the nuclear power plant. He worked there for about 1 year before joining the church, Church Universal and Triumphant. He then decided that he needed to move to Montana to become the churches head engineer.

He worked as the head engineer for the CUT church for many years and did a lot of pretty amazing engineering work. He worked directly under the leader of the church for many years until she passed away. 

William got married to his second wife in 1988 and had three children with her Chester Smith, Caylla Smith-Wallace and Colum Smith. He was a great and loving father to his children. He has 7 beautiful grandchildren who he loved very dearly.

In 1998 he decided to start his own engineering business in Park County, Montana, Octagon Consulting Engineers. He focused primarily on civil engineering and was a fantastic engineer. He loved his career and helping people develop land and more. His career brought him so much joy and he worked until the day he passed away. 

He was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic esophageal cancer in October 2022. He gave it his all and fought hard because he loved his life. His fight and determination to live in the moment and to the fullest is something that will never be forgotten. His love for baseball, guns, knives and spaghetti are things that will always be reminders of the amazing person and father William Edward Smith. His smile and laugh is something that will live in our hearts forever.

We will be planning a celebration of life ceremony in the spring months for people to attend. 

A private service was held.  

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