It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of a beloved man, Billy Hayden Smith on August 12, 2023. He was a successful business owner, a man of high integrity, intellect, faith, knowledge, and most importantly, had an unwavering commitment to his friends and family. His personality was open to making life-long friendships, always greeting people with a smile and a positive disposition. He loved to talk and especially enjoyed telling people of his Scotch/Irish heritage and his relatives and connections to his beloved Paint Rock Valley.
Billy was an accomplished musician. He taught himself to play the guitar at a young age and played the 15-string lute throughout his life at home and for events, churches, concerts, and at his daughter’s wedding. He also served on the board of the Huntsville Youth Orchestra. Billy was born July 3,1940 at Huntsville Hospital. He lived in Trenton, Alabama until moving to Huntsville in 1941. He attended Fifth Avenue Grammer School, where his mother was a teacher, Huntsville Junior High, and graduated from Huntsville High in 1958. He attended Florence State (UNA) for a year before transferring to the University of Alabama where he graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1963. After graduation, he joined the US Army as a Second Lieutenant.
He met Norma Dean Meharg on a blind date and they married on May 28, 1964. They moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he served in the Medical Service Corp as a Sanitary Engineer for three years, rising to the rank of Captain. They moved back to Huntsville where he worked for Joe Worley and Associates and then for the City of Huntsville in the Sanitation Department. He became a registered engineer and land surveyor and formed his own civil engineering and land surveying company in 1974 with his partner, Raymond Ausban. In 1984, he founded Smith Engineering Company where he remained until he sold it to some of his employees in 2021. He continued to work part-time until November 2022. His Civil Engineering “footprints” can be seen all over Huntsville, Madison and beyond. He was involved in widening many roads including Haysland Road, Whitesburg Drive, Green Cove Road, and Holmes Avenue and involved in the development of countless subdivisions including Hampton Cove, McMullen Cove, Belk Hudson Lofts. He was appointed to the State Board of Engineers by the Governor in 1989 and served for ten years. During that time, he was responsible for licensing engineers in the state of Alabama. He was also proud of his engineering work at Clearview Cancer Institute, where he received treatments recently while viewing the waterfall he created at the center.
A member of Weatherly Heights Baptist Church since 1981, Billy was a man of faith and continued to participate in a weekly Bible study. He was a long-time member of the Huntsville Rotary Club and, for many years, loved dressing up to portray a surveyor at the Maple Hill Cemetery Stroll. Billy was an avid fan of Alabama football and Atlanta Braves baseball and enjoyed history, politics, ancestry, and westerns.
Because of his commitment to his friends, family, employees, and the delivery of quality service to his clients, he was a beloved member of the community.
Billy was preceded in death by his parents, Wilson Dewey Smith Sr and Verna Sansing Smith and his brother Wilson D. Smith Jr.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 59 years, Norma “Dean” Meharg Smith; daughter, Julie Kathryn Smith Jones; son-in-law, Chuck Jones; grandchildren, Harrison Jones (who was born on Billy’s birthday), Hayden Jones (Billy’s namesake) and Anna Kathryn Jones, all of Huntsville.
Visitation will be Saturday, August 19, 2023 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. at Weatherly Heights Baptist Church, 1306 Cannstatt Dr. S.E. followed by the funeral service at 3:00 p.m. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Mickey Sanders, Harrison Jones, Hayden Jones, Russell Smith, Scott Smith, and Carter Ward.
Memorials may be made to Weatherly Heights Baptist Church, 1306 Cannstatt Drive, SE, Huntsville 35803 (www.weatherly.org), The Leukemia Foundation, 191 Waukegan Road Suite 105, Northfield, IL 60093 (www.leukemiaf.org) or the Hospice Family Care In Patient Facility c/o The Huntsville Hospital Foundation, 801 Clinton Avenue E, Huntsville, AL 35801 (www.huntsvillehospitalfoundation.org).
