Obituary of Bill Alvin Smith, Jr.

Bill A Smith Jr, 93, of Tulsa, OK, passed away on December 21, 2024.  His Celebration of Life will be held at Covenant Living @ Inverness, 3800 W 71^st, on January 18, 2025 at 1:00 pm. 

Bill was born in Ft. Smith Arkansas and moved to Tulsa in 1956 to attend Tulsa University and obtain his Petroleum Engineering degree.  In 1966, he joined the Williams Brothers Company as a pipeline design engineer.  In 1972 he moved to the Lummus Crest Company.  After spending 15 years with them as a Pipeline Engineering Manager, he created his own consulting firm before rejoining Willbros Engineering.  He officially retired from engineering in 1997 only to join Wiemann Metalcraft as a part-time Facilities & Safety Manager retiring from there in 2020.

Being the oldest of 12 children, Bill had a natural ability to organize and manage.  His friendly & outgoing personality allowed him to interact with people and form long lasting relationships.  His engineering skills provided an opportunity to travel internationally anywhere that there might be oil & gas production.  In fact, on three occasions his travel took him completely around the world.  In 1979 he was invited to accompany the third petroleum delegation into Communist China after President Nixon initiated normalization talks.  This trip ended up being one of the highlights of his professional career. 

After his graduation from TU, his spiritual walk began to deepen as he & his family took more active roles in the Methodist Church.  He was an active member of First Methodist Church Tulsa since 1966.  His love for this church was unmeasurable.  He was on numerous committees, mission councils, Sunday school leadership positions, teaching rotations, building committees and a key member of forming the Beacon Class Scholarship which has handed out over $335,000 in college scholarships since 1971.  He served in the mission field both abroad & locally, seizing every opportunity to share his love for the Lord.  What a joy for him, it must have been, to celebrate Christmas with Jesus this year!

For the last 20 years, he resided at Inverness Village, where he continued to take on various leadership responsibilities including overseeing the building of the Chapel, singing in the choir, trapping turtles out of the pond and hanging out with the ROMEO group every Wednesday morning.  His big smile and friendly greetings, along with his homemade peanut brittle, will be missed by the residents and staff.  At the age of 86 he experienced what “falling in love again” was like when he met Zeke Hanson.  They quickly found out that they not only shared a birthday, but also a love for sports, music and travel.  They were able to share many adventures together.

Bill is survived by his daughter & son-in-law, Cyndy & Monty Snowden, grandson Trey Snowden, 4 brothers, 4 sisters, Zeke Hanson, Zeke’s 4 daughters & family and best friend Gary Bracken.  He is preceded in death by his wife of 63 years Dottie Smith, parents & 3 sisters.  Memorial donations can be made to: Beacon Memorial Scholarship Fund, First Methodist Church, 1115 S Boulder Ave, Tulsa, OK  74119.   

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