Buckland,  Mr. Edmund F. Smith, a life-long resident of Buckland died Friday morning, Oct. 3, in the same ancestral home where he was born April 2, 1930. He was 84.

            Smith was a farmer well-known for his decades of involvement in local affairs and for his willingness to take action for causes dear to him, be they fighting Washington for a fairer deal for farmers, getting out his own sledge hammer to repair the iron bridge in Shelburne Falls, or asking the school committee to remove reading material that offended his devout faith.

            Starting in 1967, Smith won elected office several times, serving on regional school committees for six years, Buckland’s board of health for three years, and 12 consecutive years on Buckland’s board of selectmen, finally retiring from elected office in 1990. In 1976 he lost a campaign for county commissioner, and in 1994 he lost a campaign for state representative.

            Before entering public office, Smith gained notoriety in 1966 as president of the North Central Mass. Dairymen’s Association and led a campaign opposing federal regulations that would hurt milk prices for local farmers. In the 1970s, Smith lobbied Washington because of unfair freight regulations that made feed costs too expensive for New England farmers. Smith got the help of U.S. Rep. Silvio Conte who invited Smith and other Massachusetts farmers to travel to Washington in 1973 to meet with Earl Butz, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

            In 1976, the Greenfield Recorder reported the result of the meeting.

            “A month ago, Congress passed the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act, which includes a measure for regulating freight grain rates,” reporter Michael Gery wrote. “Since then, Conte has attributed that measure to an enlightening meeting he had with Ed Smith.”

            In 1981, Smith could not persuade the local school committee to remove books from required reading that contained vulgar language, but compromised with the committee to allow his own children to read other books instead.

            In a report at the time by the Associated Press in the Boston Herald American, Smith was described as “a devout Baptist, he doesn’t drink, smoke or swear and he takes the Bible as his ultimate authority.”

            The report summarized Smith’s argument this way: “If it is unconstitutional for students to be required to pray in the public schools, he argues, it should also be unconstitutional for a student to be required to read a book that a parent finds morally objectionable.”

            Throughout most of his public career, Smith worked simultaneously on the family dairy farm in Buckland Center with his father George E. Smith, who died in 1986, and his brother Homer E. Smith, who died in 2003. In 1988, Smith retired from dairy farming, and from the feed business that was run from the farm, selling his dairy cows and equipment, but kept the ancestral farm, which his great-grandfather Edmund Mills Smith had purchased in 1851.

            Deeply touched by the death of his own father, he studied to gain a certificate in funeral directing in order to help others go through the grieving process that he had experienced. He did this part-time for several years in his retirement.

            Passionate about male quartet music, Smith was a lifetime member of the Buckland Male Chorus, which he often directed, as were his father and brother.

            Smith’s is one of the oldest families in Massachusetts and was one of the pioneers in western New England. His direct ancestor Samuel Smith of Hadley, England, arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, and was one of the founders first of Wethersfield, Conn., and subsequently Hadley, Mass.

            Two generations later, part of the family settled Sunderland, and then Smith’s great-grandfather eventually purchased the Smith farm and moved from Sunderland to the farm on Upper Street. Smith died in the same room in which his grandfather and namesake, Edmund Francis Smith, was born and died; and in which his own father lived until his death.

            He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Theresa Jo Morris Smith, 76, his six children: Carl G. Smith, 51, of Lansdale, Penna.; Melanie M. Atkinson, 50, of Hampton, N.B., Canada; Stephen E. Smith, 48, of Buckland, Mass.; James M. Smith, 44, of Denton, Neb.; Charlene L. Bernier, 43, of Buckland, Mass., and Douglas G. Smith, 41, of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Smith leaves seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

            Smith is also survived by two older sisters, Reola F. Smith, 87, of Buckland, and Sarah E. Looman, 86, of Shelburne. His oldest sister Katherine M. Parry died in 1974, and his mother Violet Reola Page Smith died in 1950.

            He will be buried in the family burial place at the First Congregational Church (Mary Lyon Church) in Buckland Center with his parents and sister. His grandparents and great-grandparents are also buried there.

            The family will hold visiting hours at the First Baptist Church of Colrain, of which Smith was a member for most of his life, on Wednesday, Oct. 8, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.; and the funeral will also be held there on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 10 a.m. The burial in Buckland will directly follow the funeral. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.