Survived By: Donald William Smith, 36, died on July 7, 2009. He was born in San Bernardino County, CA on August 14, 1972. Don is survived by his wife, Candice Johnson Smith who is expecting their first child; parents, William David and Janice (Haycock) Smith; siblings, Susan Smith, Sheila Farnsworth, David Smith, Daniel Smith, and Sandra Hiatt. A funeral service will be held 2:00 PM Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, 200 S.E. Maynard Road, Cary, NC. The family will receive friends at the funeral home one hour prior to the service. Condolences may be sent through the guest book at www.brownwynne.com.

Becky Jones Oleson has been in touch with Don recently and writes the following:

I ran into Don just a few months ago while attending school at Miller-Motte College in Cary, NC. I was amazed that we had gone to high school thousands of miles away from North Carolina, but managed to end up in the same place almost twenty years later. Don was a massage therapy student and I am an esthetics student, so we'd pass each other in the hallway sometimes over the past few months and chat in the library. I recognized him instantly, though I never knew him very well in high school. He hadn't changed at all -- still thin, full head of hair, healthy looking and kind. I teased him that he had such a young-looking face in high school and he still had that youthful face nearly 20 years later. He told me that he was expecting to graduate in less than a year, that he had just recently gotten married and that he and his wife were expecting a baby in October. He seemed excited to start his new life with his family and was looking forward to graduating as a massage therapist. He was happy to be on a positive path with his life; one where he could provide comfort and relief to clients who were in pain. He was a very peaceful, nature-loving, live-and-let live kind of guy by the time I met him for the second time. I didn't find out Don had passed away until after his funeral. A classmate and close friend of his remembered the two of us talking, stopped me in the hallway and said she was sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that Don had passed away over the break between quarters. I feel bad that I couldn't offer my condolences to Don's wife and parents at the funeral. Every one of his classmates that I've spoken with has spoken so highly of him. They said he was a gifted therapist with an amazing touch, and they knew he would have been very successful in the healing arts.