Ralph R. Smith III

I am so saddened by our tragic loss of Sam. My heart especially goes out to Deb who lived life to the fullest with him. However, as I recall my years knowing Sam, I immediately smile because I have such great memories. I first met Sam in the mid 1980's when Deb started work at Draper labs and met Sam as a fellow engineer. Deb invited him to join us in an evening out (most likely happy hour at the Muddy Charles, but not important). I immediatley liked him. Deb and I were roommates in Cambridge, MA and I can frankly state she was NOT looking for a "boyfriend". But if you were smart, fun and laid back, you were welcome to join in on our merriment. Sam fit the bill exactly. He was exceedingly smart, very funny and went with the flow (unless you were annoying...). Sam and Deb had such a great and long lasting relationship since it was built on a true friendship and mutual interests. During our 20's, we worked hard at our jobs, but always managed to get out for some crazy fun on weekends or trips. Sam could be the picture of decorum, but did not like pretentiousness or snobbery and would love to make fun of anyone trying to act that way. His laugh was particulary hearty and I can still easily bring it to mind. Whether we were hanging out at the house in Framingham, sailing in Nantucket or hopping around the Greek Islands, we always drank too much, and laughed real hard. Life took us to different parts of the country and we didn't see each other as much as we would have liked, but whenever we did get together, it felt like old times immediately. We always enjoyed the simple things together - good beer, a nice grilled steak and plenty of interesting discussion. Over the years, we managed to coordinate travel together. My husband, Jonathan, shared Sam's enthusiam for cycling so we went on a week road bicycling trip to North Carolina. We even survived a tropical storm/hurricane during the trip and waded through knee deep water to a local bar for (of course) beers. Since our friendship has spanned over 30 years, we even got together for my 50th birthday at a beach house in North Carolina (I see a theme). But that is the kind of friend Sam was - he'd go out of his way for you. Sam was a special person and the world has suffered a great loss. I will cherish all my memories and will toast him repeatedly through the years going forward. We love you Sam! Kris Hunter

To all who loved Sam - I wrote this to share my memories of Sam. Sorry that it is a little long, but I wanted to share my experiences and story. Jim Sam. Best buddy. Mentor. Surrogate big brother. Top notch engineer. Beer connoisseur (a.k.a., snob, in a good way). Mountain biker, road biker. Cross country skier. Body surfer. Sailor. I could go on… I met Sam in the late 80’s. He had come by my big sister Kris’ Boston area apartment, allegedly courting my other “big sister”, Debbie. Debbie was my sister’s best friend in high school. They now lived together and unfortunately for Sam that day, I happened to be around. See, I was quite protective of Kris and Debbie when it came to their suitors. At least that’s what I thought my role should be. I had to make sure these guys, first and foremost, weren’t too square for the coolest chicks I knew. So, I put Sam to the test. My buddy Scott was there. Well, about the time that Scott and I were sitting in Sam’s lap and Sam still had a huge, yet somewhat disconcerted smile on his semi-blushing face, I knew he had passed my test. Little did I know that the key was for ME to pass Sam’s tests of what it meant to be considered sharp, competent, critical, yet, appreciative of others and all that is around us. Whether that appreciation be focused on nature, man-made technology or other human beings. From there the friendship grew. It did not take long before we bonded on many levels. He really played a role as a mentor for me at a time when I had a lot of self-doubt and struggled as to whether my choice of becoming an engineer was right. I recall one evening drinking a couple of beers waiting for the girls to arrive at the apartment before we headed out to a typical bender in Boston. There was a stereo that Sam had pulled the top off for some reason. We spent a good hour looking into the top of it. I would naively point to a component and Sam would identify it. “That’s a cap. Probably to filter out amplifier noise. Oh that? That’s an opamp – part of the gain circuitry. The colored bands on the resistors? Oh, that’s how you can instantly identify the value of the resistor.” And so on. He made me feel like I too could get a grasp on this stuff. It worked – I became very successful in the technical field and to this day feel that Sam sealed the deal for me and catalyzed this career I have. It was not just engineering. It was music, biking, drinking beer, cross country skiing, drinking schnapps, grilled steaks, sailing on Nantucket. Did I mention beer? One comical set of experiences played out on Nantucket. We planned a few summer trips there. On one of our first ones several hilarious things happened. One stemmed from the fact that I had just seen the re-run of the Original Star Trek series episode, “Return of the Archons”. I reminded Sam of the plot and storyline and he quickly remembered and caught on. We spent the whole time wandering through what we saw as the stiff, pretentious Nantucket crowd, placing a hand on our chest, tilting forward and saying “Here for the festival?” Of course, we are howling and laughing, however, no one had a clue what we were talking about and simply sneered at us. Which made it all the better! For context, make it a point to watch (or hopefully, re-watch) that episode. I did the night I wrote this! When I ended up moving to Texas, I unfortunately didn’t see Sam a whole lot. But the amazing thing was that when we did get together, we immediately reconnected. Our usual get together was when I would fly home periodically to check on my ailing parents, or for the holidays (or both). We would plan a reunion – I would arrive in the late afternoon and Sam would get out of work a touch early. This was Framingham, by the way. The night would start somewhat civilly. Deb would show and we would move on to grilled steaks, a couple of beers. Oops, now a bottle of Zinfandel was gone. We invented our own wine descriptors. Quaffability. Gulpablility. A lot of gulping went on. Deb is off to bed. “We’ll be done soon, Deb”, as Sam returned from checking in with her before bed. Right. Now a leather bota bag was full of chilled schnapps. Fast forward. Why are we stumbling across the top of the aqueduct that hails from the Quabbin? Because, we are Canyon Men! Or Nordic Men if near Christmas. Nordic Men often meant cross-country skis. Or not. It just meant it was cold. However, it didn’t matter. We always just wanted to end up outdoors. And that’s why we liked to hang out with each other. Like minded. So nice when you find a friend who instinctively gravitates to the simple pleasures your own mind seeks. Eventually, we would find our way back to the house. Chilled from the evening air, we’d settle down on the couch and play some soft tunes (Debbie was asleep, or so we assumed) and open a couple of brews as a night cap. Psychedelic Furs was a staple, along with Morrissey, or even some Pink Floyd, maybe Led Zeppelin. We would fade out, Sam off to bed, I think actually having to head to work in the morning. I remember always feeling a little sad as I packed alone and locked up the house to return to Nashua. A day or so later, on a plane back to Austin. All now just a memory of wild laughter, deep kinship and mutual connection and understanding of what was actually fun and meaningful in life. There are so many things I do every day that constantly remind me of Sam. A clip of music. Popping open a hoppy, malty brew. Tuning up my mountain bike. My job as an engineer. Topping a climb on my road bike. I struggle hard with the idea that he is gone, but at the same time embrace the memories, because in the end, sometimes that is all we have. I will miss you sorely, Sam, but I will cherish the memories you gave me.

My Best Friend Sam​​​October 2017 When I think of Sam (my best friend in my adult life), a lot of characteristics come to mind. I’ll share them with you and then add some stories of times where they came to the front. My buddy Sam was characterized as: -Smart, logical – a problem solver - Dedicated as a friend as an employee for Raytheon, and as a dedicated partner for Deb - Fun, Funny, with a dry sense of humor and a love of laughter - Youthful even as we aged; once called 16 going on 40! - Filled with a sense of wonder of the world around him; in the woods, looking at the stars, observing lunar eclipses and the Aurora-borealis; dashing around in new fallen snow; sailing through rough seas - a lover of adventure, whether it was on a sailboat, a bike, on skis, driving to the beach, headed to the islands in Greece or just exploring around Framingham or Westford - a reliable friend - a lover of simple pleasures, whether it was a new beer, a fine plate of meatloaf, or a hike up a mountain he’d climbed a 100 times - a master of cheap thrills – skiing down small hills over and over, riding up and down the same hill repeatedly just for the short thrill of the downhills - a curious engineer – he loved learning new things (that interested him) - Punctual – if he said he’d be there at 5, it wasn’t 5:05, it was on-time! - Organized (see punctual) - Competitive – he liked to win whether it was a fun game of tennis, or a climb up a steep rocky mountain bike hill or a town line sprint on the road bike - one who liked a good time partying with friends and family - a lover of fine music and the stereo equipment that played it – the love of music and stereos was one thing that drove him to become an electrical engineer - One who took pride in his ride, whether is was his bike (always polished clean and in perfect tune) or his cars (also polished and in perfect working condition) Two thinks he used to tell me were ’how fortunate we were to live during a “beer renaissance”’ – as fresh faced engineers out of college we were relegated to the Buds, Millers and watered-down American beers and we lived through the explosion of the micro-brew revolution. The other thing he liked to point out was that we lived through the birth and development of the “mountain bike”. As ‘early adopters’ we lived through its move from modified street bikes to full suspension rides. I’ve known Sam my entire adult life (and even before I became an adult, according to some). I first met Sam in the 1970’s. We were both Electrical Engineering students at the U of D. This was not an easy course of study – out of a freshman class of 90, 12 graduated, I remembered. I was introduced to Sam at 29C Victoria Mews. You can hear a lot of stories about that from a bunch of his friends here. Even though we were both EE students, we only were in one class together – during winter session in 1978 “Medieval University”. It was a junior level class so we could take it pass-fail as an elective. It was Sam and me and a dozen history majors. We made our mark in the class and brought some levity, I know. Many years later, at a rest stop on a bike ride, we would laugh remembering those days and classes. In the 1980’s our worlds collided in the Boston area. The 1980’s were characterized by Raytheon, Sailboats, Little Beach, Fast Cars and Romance During a spring break visit, he interviewed at Raytheon, they offered him a job and he moved up here. We shared a house for that first year and both worked at Raytheon. We laughed a lot in that house (there are at least 365 stories about that year…). We were both on the Trident submarine launched missile program and ended up both working in Cambridge at Draper Labs (connected to MIT) on the next generation Guidance Electronics for Trident. We laughed a lot at how we were among all those smart people – but it was not an accident – Sam was one of those smart people. It was very cool technology, leading edge semiconductors, and he loved it. We had fun while contributing to important work. Noontime softball, tennis ladder, low priced beer at the Muddy Waters pub… At Draper, he met the love of his life, Deb McCoy. I was fortunate to have been at the party where they met. In the mid-80’s we both bought sailboats – me an O’Day Daysailor and Sam an International 470. His boat was an Olympic class 2-man boat – boy was it fast. We had so many adventures sailing; he was my instructor and friend. Whether it was sailing on local lakes on one of our boats, or being out with both boats on the ocean, there was a lot of laughter and fun. His boat handling skills and calm on the water were invaluable in a few fun episodes on the water. From placemats as charts for sailing in Boston Harbor, to a late November sail getting caught near Minot’s light as the wind died and ghosting our way back to Scituate harbor, there was adventure, laughter and challenge. In the 80’s we both bought fast cars – me a Porsche and Sam a Corvette. He loved telling me, Bill, GT and the guys each year when he got the next inspection sticker (“this month I got the 25th”). He loved that Corvette and all Corvettes! We drove up to Montreal one year and went to the Formula One GP. The sounds and smells were cool – Sam also enjoyed the fact we could get Canadian beer for $2 CDN – that’s about $1.35 US – hahaha!! The 1990’s were characterized by Mountain Bikes, xc skiing, and families. Sam discovered and I joined him on the adventure of mountain biking! The technology moved quickly and he and I would talk endlessly about them. Even more than the talk we rode. One famous thing we said to each other all the time was “ACG Dude!” All Conditions Gear were a brand from Nike, and we were proud to be riding in all conditions – sun, clouds, snow, rain, sleet, anything and everything. Sam liked to celebrate that instead of sitting at home on a Saturday at 6am, we were out riding!! In the mid-90’s we experienced what we called the “bike ride continuum”. We were riding at least 5 days a week and many weeks all 7 days. We covered the trails he loved between our homes (we lived 4.2 miles apart). He worked at Raytheon-Sudbury and I too was working in Sudbury. We named trails and when we met up, would plot a course for that ride. ‘double-down’, ‘root-rocks-reggae’, ‘snake-hole’, ‘fallen tree’, ‘water tower’, ‘big hill’, ‘the med’, ‘baby heads’, ‘oregon’ We discovered what Sam called “enabling technologies” – lights for mountain biking transformed everything. Even the night couldn’t stop us. We enjoyed “twilight double headers” – leave our houses late afternoon and ride into evening then meet the next morning before dawn and ride into the daylight. Another ‘enabling technology’ was studded tires – 296 carbide tipped studs allowed us to ride even if the trails were too icy for walking. Adventure, technology, fun, and determined to get out there!! His technical and mechanical skills were on display while riding. We prided ourselves in being able to fix almost anything that broke while we were riding. Sam took pride in being able to change a flat in less than 5 minutes – we worked together and divided up the work very well. He loved to ride the bikes and his second favorite activity was working on the bikes. He took pride in his ride. In the winter during those days, we xc skied on those same mountain biking trails. It was another opportunity for gear – wax, iron, etc. We were out there at -10 degrees! Fun Fun! Cheap thrills – from skiing up and down the aqueduct behind his house in Framingham, to Boston rides (we found that the USS Constitution fired off the cannon at 8am and raised the US flag) we searched for those thrills. For Boston, we’d meet at the ‘ice rink’ on Nonantum Road and race into Charlestown. The waitress knew us at Mike’s pastry in the North End from our stops there for cappuccino and cannoli’s after we left the USS Constitution. During the continuum, Sam was working on his MBA from WPI. I had started a consulting business and he brought what he was learning at school and I would share what I was doing that related to the topic on our rest stop. We both learned from each other – how cool was that? Families were important in the 1990’s. My son Jonathan was born in 1989 and Alison was born in 1994. Sam was a big part of their early lives. In fact, it started in the late 80’s. I remember him coming with us to cut down a Christmas tree and him and my son Bobby (12 at the time) giggling in the back seat as we rode to the farm. Sam was very special to Alison as I know he was with Rachael, Jessica and Natalie Hirst. In the 2000’s we discovered kayaks and road bikes. We brought them to Little Beach and that was just more fun. We also discovered groomed xc trails in Carlisle, MA. As we covered those trails like a continuum, we found some one-way trails were much more fun in the opposite direction. The best trail was ‘Chuck-wood’ (woodchuck backwards). More fun and laughter and friendship. Even though we still rode the mountain bikes all the time, we found the woods became too buggy in the summer (black flies in June, mosquitos in July, and horseflies in August). He started and I followed him to road biking. It was during the Lance Armstrong TdF days and we just had a blast with another set of toys. Sam loved reading and studying maps and that became such an asset on the road bike rides. He loved to ‘touch the bases’ on rides and mapped out all kids of fun rides. I could go on for hours talking about all the destination rides - “tour de agua” (ride where we touched the base of all the ponds, lakes and reservoirs in a 20 mile diameter from our houses) is one. September 10, 2001 was an example to me of how great and reliable a friend he was. I left for a business trip to Portland, Oregon on that day. The next day, planes flew into the World Trade Center. I was stuck in Oregon for a week with a wife and two young children alone in Sudbury. Sam was there for my family and was invaluable in keeping them feeling safe. He showed his true friendship yet again. The 2010’s were characterized with more mountain biking, road biking, kayaks – ‘later-rinse-repeat’. Sam and Deb bought the place on the cape, and I moved to Maine in the 2010’s so we saw less of each other during this decade. But when we did get together, it were right back at it – didn’t miss a beat. The same sense of humor, the same fun – it was a blast. The gatherings in September became even more important and we celebrated together even more. From adventures at Little Beach that started in the 1980’s, to renting houses on the cape, there was fun and friendship on steroids. GT, Bill, Joe, Steve and Dave were all part of that fun and what memories we have from all the fun.

To my brother...I'm still not believing this happened. I can only wish I can be as brave and upbeat as you were as you battled your illness. You taught me much, cars, hockey, Star Trek- there is only one Capt. James T. Kirk( Shatner), music, don't carve your initials in trees, how to throw a frisbee, catch a football, catch a baseball. So many fond memories in our adulthood: Little Beach, Driving Stacy crazy with Dr. Strangelove and Star Trek quotes, taking Dad's boat out, Letting me drive your 'Vette, annoying the neighbors one night with loud music and too many beers, The Cape House, Letting Nick take the helm of your dinghy, Mountain Biking in Boston, Dawn Y2K Day mountain bike ride when it 4 degrees out, getting me back into biking, Stacy's graduation( PA-per towel) Introducing Debbie into our family; you and Barry making it to my retirement from the service. So many good memories, and yes some bad...stepping on your hockey stick.. :) Such an influence on my life. You touched so many people with your kindness and wit. Your nephew adores you, and you inspire him all the time in academics and athletics. This is rambling I know, but so many emotions and memories while I write this. I will miss you always and love you forever.... "The Little Tyke"