On Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, Eileen Adele Smith, 82, succumbed in Hemet to the effects of COVID-19, ending years of increasingly painful suffering from hemochromatosis, a hereditary disease.
Adele was born to Arthur and Ebba Petznick in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona where she became an honored musician. She graduated from Wheaton College, where she was the crusading editor of the student newspaper.
In 1959, she married Robert B. Smith. They lived in Berkeley, California, where she taught school.
She came into her own after the family moved to Ogden, Utah in 1980. As a chamber of commerce manager, she created a program that discovered and gave voice to hundreds of Ogden businesswomen. In her honor, the mayor and city council declared Adele Smith Day on March 26, 1985.
She came into her own after the family moved to Ogden, Utah in 1980. As a chamber of commerce manager, she created a program that discovered and gave voice to hundreds of Ogden businesswomen. In her honor, the mayor and city council declared Adele Smith Day on March 26, 1985.
She went on to cofound the National Association of Women in Chambers of Commerce and pioneer a guest relations program at northern Utah’s biggest hospital.
Finally, she crowned her public career by twice winning election to the Ogden city council. She accomplished much in that role, as in other spheres, because she never cared who got the credit.
With her health beginning to deteriorate, she retired in 1998 and enjoyed the family’s summer cabin in Idyllwild that she and Bob settled into in 2001. Here, she served as a Chamber of Commerce director, sang with the Idyllwild Master Chorale and coedited the Idyllwild Area Historical Society’s newsletter.
An accomplished vocalist and keyboard musician, music was always part of her life. She also became an authority on organizational communications and earned national recognition in most of her endeavors.
She raised a loving and talented family of strong women and a gentle man.
Adele was preceded in death by her brother Earl Petznick. She is survived by her husband Bob in Hemet; her children Monica Smith (Curt Fukuda) in Mountain View, California; Sara Nelson in Huntington Beach California; Doug Smith (Hayley) in Morro Bay, California; and by four grandchildren Evan and Kyle Nelson and Richard and Eileen Fukuda.
At this time, no public service is planned. Adele asked that friends wishing to remember her gather over a bottle of wine and listen to her all-time favorite piece of music, “A German Requiem” by Johannes Brahms. Memorial donations may be made to the Idyllwild Area Historical Society (P.O. Box 3320) or the Idyllwild Master Chorale (P.O. Box 3244).
