June 12th, 1929 - April 7th, 2024
Margaret passed peacefully on April 7, 2024 (age 94), at Frasier Meadows, Boulder, Colorado, six weeks after suffering injuries from a fall, and two weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer, and four days after suffering a stroke and heart attack. Her daughters Elaine and Cynthia were with her, as well as nursing staff. Her son, Malcolm, and husband, Archie, arrived shortly after.
Margaret was born in 1929 in a farmhouse on her parent’s wheat farm near the village of Avonlea in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Her parents were Eva (nee Miller) and Alexander Campbell. She was the youngest of seven children. The oldest was Verna, who was 15 years older than Margaret and acted as her “second” mother. In between were five brothers: Lloyd, Donald, Glen, Gordon and Garnet. She attended Sunshine Country School, about a mile farm the farm. In the spring and fall (or in good weather) she rode to school in a horse and buggy driven by one of her brothers. In the winter they used a horse-drawn sleigh. After her brothers finished at Sunshine School, she attended school in Avonlea and later Moose Jaw, where she boarded. She attended the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, majoring in dietetics, and graduating in 1951.
Margaret was interested in sports from a young age and played softball, bowling, skating, and curling. Her father taught the family to curl, and they played on the frozen reservoir on their farm, and at the Avonlea Curling Club. Four of her brothers won the Brier, the Canadian men’s curling championship, in 1955. Margaret skipped the University of Saskatchewan women’s varsity curling team for several years. Margaret (as skip) and daughter Cynthia Smith (as third) won the first US Women’s Curling Association championship in 1977, playing out of the St. Andrews Curling Club in Hastings, NY.
After obtaining her degree in dietetics, she interned at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton. There she joined a young people’s group at Metropolitan United Church, where she met her future husband, Archibald W. Smith, who was attending the University of Alberta. They became good friends and stayed in contact after Margaret began work as a dietician at the Moose Jaw General Hospital. Margaret and Archie were married on September 23, 1953, at the Moose Jaw United Church.
Margaret and Archie moved to Toronto, where Margaret worked at Sick Children’s Hospital as a dietician, while Archie worked on his PhD at the University of Toronto. Margaret said that children were easier to help than adults. After Archie obtained his PhD (physics), they moved to Ottawa where he had a research position at the National Research Council.
Their three children, Malcolm, Elaine, and Cynthia Smith, were born in Ottawa.
The family moved to Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County, New York, in 1961 after Archie obtained a research position at IBM’s Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY.
The family joined the St. Andrews Curling Club, where Margaret curled with the Westchester Wicks. She curled in many competitions and bonspiels in the northeastern U.S. She also taught herself to play tennis and won the local women’s tennis tournament. She taught nutrition at Westchester Community College.
Margaret and Archie moved to Orange County, California in 1981, where Margaret studied interior design.
They moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 1983 after Archie began working for Storage Technology. Margaret obtained her realtor’s license and worked as a realtor for Coldwell Banker. They were members of the Denver Curling Club until the club gave up its ice facility on I-70 around 1998.
They both retired in 1999. Margaret enjoyed gardening, indoors and outdoors, and visiting family in Canada and the U.S.
Margaret is survived by her husband, Archie Smith; children: Malcolm Smith (Winchester, MA), Elaine Smith-Koop (Wilsonville, OR), and Cynthia Smith (Denver, CO); and grandchildren: Cameron and Sierra Smith (Winchester, MA), Christopher Koop (Wilsonville, OR), and Craig Fedak (Coconut Creek, FL).
The family wishes to thank the staff of Fraiser Meadows for their excellent care of Margaret during her last weeks of life.
