Obituary for Margaret Elaine (Campbell) Smith –

Margaret passed away peacefully on April 7, 2024 (age 94) at Frasier Meadows, Boulder, Colorado, six weeks after sustaining injuries from a fall, 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 and nursing staff were with her. Her son Malcolm and her husband Archie arrived shortly afterwards. Margaret was born in 1929 in a farmhouse on her parents' wheat farm near the village of Avonlea in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Her parents were Eva (née Miller) and Alexander Campbell. She was the youngest of seven children. The eldest 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 from the farm. In the spring and fall (or when the weather was good), she traveled to school in a horse and buggy driven by one of her brothers. In winter they used a horse-drawn sleigh. After her brothers graduated from Sunshine School, she attended school in Avonlea and later Moose Jaw, where she attended boarding school. She attended the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, majoring in dietetics, 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 1955 Brier, the Canadian men's curling championship. Margaret skipped the University of Saskatchewan women's varsity curling team for several years. Margaret (as a diver) and daughter Cynthia Smith (as a third) won the first US Women's Curling Association championship in 1977 at the St. Andrews Curling Club in Hastings, NY. After graduating with a degree in dietetics, she completed an internship at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton. There she joined a youth group at the 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 touch after Margaret began work as a nutritionist at Moose Jaw General Hospital. Margaret and Archie were married on September 23, 1953 at Moose Jaw United Church. Margaret and Archie moved to Toronto, where Margaret worked at Sick Children's Hospital as a nutritionist while Archie worked on his doctorate at the University of Toronto. Margaret said it was easier to help children than adults. After Archie received his doctorate (physics), they moved to Ottawa, where he had a research position with 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 received 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 participated in many competitions and bonspiels throughout the Northeast United States. 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 started working for Storage Technology. Margaret received her broker's license and worked as a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker. They were members of the Denver Curling Club until the club gave up its ice facility on I-70 around 1998. Both retired in 1999. Margaret loved gardening, indoors and outdoors, and visiting families in Canada and the United States. 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 would like to thank the staff at Fraiser Meadows for their excellent care of Margaret in her final weeks of life.