AUGUSTA – As he would have been the first to say, on May 11, 2024, Wes “up and took dead.”

Born in Gardiner, July 11, 1949, he was stricken with polio at one year old. The doctor said he’d never walk. That was just the first of many instances where Wessy was underestimated.

By the mid-60’s the family had moved to Bangor where his parents taught in the Bangor School system. At Bangor High, Wes played football; maybe not on the starting team or even second string, but still quite an accomplishment for someone who was never supposed to walk, let alone run.

In 1971, he graduated from the University of Maine, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Wildlife Management. While there he became a brother at Sigma Nu fraternity.

Polio had robbed him of the ability to pronounce his “th’s” so he became the first, maybe only, underhand “axe frower” the Maine Woodsman’s team ever had.

After graduation, he went to work for Dr. Charlie Schumacher on a forest fertilization study. Then he found full time employment with Osmose, treating utility poles in South Carolina and Vermont, with powerful, now banned, anti-rot chemicals.

Soon he moved back to Maine, having been recommended for a job with the Maine Dept. of Agriculture and the Board of Pesticide Control. He worked there until retirement as Maine’s registrar of pesticides and as Agriculture’s bat biologist.

Early in his residence in Augusta, he joined the Junior Chamber of Commerce, working on the early “Great Kennebec Whatever Races” to celebrate the Improving water quality in that river. Soon he became involved with a fledgling organization known as the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, working on the referendum, in 1982, to make permanent an annual moose hunt in Maine. Eventually he served as treasurer (twice) of SAM and its president. (Twice). For a number of years in the ‘80s and early ‘90s he was a firefighter on Augusta’s call company.

In the mid ’80’s, he and Harry Vanderwiede developed and produced the State of Maine Sportsman’s Show at the Augusta Civic Center, now a rite of springtime in Maine. Building on that expertise, he served on the Board of Directors of the Theater at Monmouth, eventually becoming chairman.

He was perhaps happiest at Ragged Lake, hunting birds and deer, fishing through the ice or from a boat, cutting firewood and working on the camp.

Upon retirement from state government, he travelled extensively in New Hampshire and Vermont, hiking mountains in the Whites and the Greens. Winters he’d head south in February and March, visiting Civil and Revolutionary War battlefields, camping in state parks.

Wes was predeceased by his parents, Clayton Sr. and Vonita (Chipman) Smith, and two elder brothers, Lee and Verne. He is survived by brother Clayton Jr. (Lillian) of St. Augustine, Fla., and their children.

At his insistence, there will be no funeral service.

Many thanks to the staff at Augusta Rehab for making his final years as comfortable as possible. He was especially grateful for the help given by Connie Bregger, Judy Devine, Jenn Spann, Angela Coulombe, the ladies in physical therapy and the RNs and CNAs on the nursing staff, especially Nurse Eva Hachey and CNAs Donna and the remarkable Heidi, who held his hand as he passed, so he wouldn’t be alone. Many thanks also to Dr. Michael Szela, whom Wes described as “crackerjack.

Arrangements are in the care of Knowlton & Hewins Funeral Home and Cremation Care, One Church St., Augusta, where memories, condolences and photos may be shared with the family on the obituary page of our website at http://www.khrfuneralhomes.com.

Those wishing to remember our friend Wes may

make a contribution

in his memory to:

The Theater at Monmouth

796 Main St.

Monmouth, ME 04259 or:

Johnson Hall

Performing Arts Center

280 Water St.

Gardiner, ME 04345 or:

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine

205 Church Hill Rd.

Augusta, ME 04330



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