R. Bruce Smith

Article written by Paul Miller shortly after his death on the front page of the Keene Sentinel.

https://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/high-hopes-hard-work-defined-bruce-smith/article_bac5e048-8bdd-50d8-bcd7-8b88716bf174.html

Bruce Smith had a dream.

“He grew up on a farm, and his dream was to have a farm,” said his wife, Joanne Smith. “He fulfilled that dream here at High Hopes Orchard.”

Bruce Smith opened the Westmoreland orchard with his wife in 1979, after working for years as a teacher and principal. It was an overgrown Christmas tree farm when the Smiths purchased it. They transformed it into an orchard through a lot of hard work, clearing the trees and constructing a barn and a home for the family to live in.

The orchard became a local destination known for its carnival rides, games, apple picking and more. After a few seasons of poor weather, the couple closed the orchard down in 2005.

Smith died Tuesday after suffering from dementia for several years. He was 77.

He was a quintessential New England farmer, said his daughter, Darcy Wilson.

“I think he wanted to be his own boss, and that’s what farming allowed him to do. It would be on his clock, on his time, with his endurance,” said Wilson. “And he was, in particular, a very hard worker.”

Bruce put his children and grandchildren to work on the farm, teaching them how to use the tractor and drive the truck. Kaitlyn Madden, one of Bruce’s six grandchildren, said working at the orchard helped her develop a work ethic that’s stayed with her for the rest of her life.

“He’s old school, you know, sun up, sun down. You work, you work hard, you play hard; that’s what you do,” said Madden. “That’s what I’m really going to miss is that he just worked so hard for everything.”

When Wilson thinks of him, she thinks of his L.L. Bean flannel and, most of all, his hard-working hands.

“It may sound really weird but to me, some of the things I appreciated most about him were his hands. If you actually looked at this hands, you really saw the farmer. You saw the hard work and the dirt under the fingernails, you know what I mean?” said Wilson. “They definitely worked really, really hard. And so I have lots of pictures of his hands.”

He taught his children to work hard, but he also taught them to follow their dreams, like he had, Wilson said. She recalls her father driving her up to Hanover on the back of his motorcycle to use the shot-put circle at Dartmouth College.

She went on to break the shot-put record at Keene High School — which she still holds — and is now the throws coach at Harvard University.

It wouldn’t have been possible without her father, she said.

“It really had a domino effect of just simple gifts to me in terms of empowering me to believe in myself and chase my dream,” said Wilson. “I’m in my dream job now.”

Though he was born in Massachusetts, Smith spent most of his life in the Monadnock Region. He grew up on a farm in Jaffrey, graduated from Keene High School and went on to study education at Keene State College, which was where he met Joanne, also studying to be a teacher. After receiving both a bachelor’s and a master’s from the college, Smith served in the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne, as well as the National Guard.

He worked for years as an elementary English teacher, special education teacher, guidance counselor and principal before retiring early to work on the farm full time.

In retirement, Bruce and Joanne Smith, who were married 55 years, loved to travel to destinations like Egypt, Morocco and China.

But one memory tops all the others, Joanne said. One long weekend after the orchard had closed for the season, the couple planned to visit L.L. Bean and stay in a bed and breakfast. On the way there, though, Joanne realized they weren’t on their usual route.

Bruce revealed two tickets to Paris in his coat pocket.

“The reason he did that is in the morning before I’d go to school and he’d go to do the things he had to do on the farm, we’d go out to eat for breakfast and we’d plan the day. And every morning, he would say, ‘Okay, so where do you want to go to breakfast?’ ” said Smith. “And we usually went to the same place, but I would always say, ‘Paris.’ ”

Bruce fulfilled her wish with a weekend of breakfasts and visits to art museums in the City of Lights. In the last years of his life when his health began to decline, Joanne said she looked back on that memory often.

“All the time that he had dementia and sometimes he had a rough day, I’d just say, ‘Remember Paris.’ ”

While Bruce Smith was dedicted to his orchard and to his family, he was also dedicated to his community. Throughout his life he served as an Alstead selectman, Westmoreland town moderator, Westmoreland zoning administrator and Westmoreland school board moderator.

Cary Smith, Bruce’s son, described his father as a man of principle who felt a duty to his community.

“I think my dad, from being a teacher and volunteering for the town and the different things that he did, he took that very seriously,” he said. “I’m proud of my dad for that, having such high moral fiber in a way.”

His tenacity was evident in his favorite phrases, Cary said: “Grab the bull by the horns” and “Keep your nose to the grindstone.”

Madden likes to think her grandfather — affectionally called “Pepe” by his grandchildren — is still on his farm.

“I feel when you pass and move on, you go to a place where you would most fit from your life. Down at the farm when you enter the fields to pick there’s a metal fence that opens up to the fields, and that’s where he spent most of his time,” said Madden.

“I really like to think when he entered heaven, that’s how it happened.”