The world lost a great jokester, grill master, and cheesehead on Nov. 20, 2023, when James Knox Smith III, of Loveland, Ohio, died due to complications from congestive heart failure. Smith passed away surrounded by his family – cracking jokes and giving little winks until the very end. He was 77 years old.

Born Nov. 10, 1946, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to Rosemary (Patrie) Smith and James Knox Smith II, Smith loved sports of all kinds from an early age, taking a particular shine to baseball and later football. A proud member of the Ski Sprites, a water ski team out of Altoona, Wisconsin, Smith spent summers performing in water skiing competitions and public shows, doing all sorts of stunts, including jumps and pyramids.

He graduated from Regis High School in 1964 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where Smith served on the U.S.S. Ranger aircraft carrier, carrying out missions across the Pacific Ocean. Upon being discharged from the military, he attended the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire on the G.I. Bill. That’s where Knox met his first wife, Rita Maliszewski, while earning a bachelor’s in science degree.

The two were married and Knox took a job selling technical equipment for Krautkramer, an arm of the Emerson Electric Company. Work took them to Ventura, California, where he and “Reetz” had three boys, JK, Cody, and Josh. Rita passed away from breast cancer when the boys were young and Smith raised them alone (with the help of family from Wisconsin) until he met Christine Campbell, who would become his partner for the rest of his days. He and Chris were married, and the family expanded to include Chris’ two sons, Johnny and Marc.

The family then moved to Loveland, Ohio, in 1996, again for Smith’s work. His company would be acquired by General Electric and change hands a few times in fact over Smith's career, but he continued to stay in the role, getting to know many of his accounts, and the people behind them, very well over the last 20-plus years of his work in sales.

A lifelong Catholic, Smith found a church family at St. Columban in Loveland, where he was a member of The Knights of Columbus and rarely missed a Lenten fish fry. Those Fridays he could normally be found manning the salmon on the grill and wearing his signature fake ponytail Velcroed into a Green Bay Packers hat. He was active in a few veteran’s clubs and fraternal associations through the years, including the Loveland Moose Lodge.

Through the years, Smith taught a whole new generation of young people about what it means to be family and how to cook perfect tri-tip steak. His door on Willow Drive was always open to his boys, their raucous friends, his neighbors—pretty much anyone who walked through the door.

In his retirement, Smith took up woodworking projects, designing and building whirligigs. Chris sat beside him, painting festival goers on a Ferris wheel or dolphins leaping over waves. In recent years, he and Chris made the most perfect Santa and Mrs. Claus, making rounds to churches, parades, family holiday parties, even Milton’s the Prospect Hill Tavern and Taft’s Ale House (recently closed), downtown.

Smith never turned down a chance to go home to Wisconsin, to visit his old stomping grounds, and see family and friends. He loved to sit around a bonfire with his sister, Kathleen Forer, his niece Katie Meyer and her family, and always looked forward to the Smith Kids Family Reunion with his cousins from Texarkana.

Smith is preceded in death by his first wife, his parents, his son James Knox (JK) Smith IV. He is survived by his sister Kathleen (Jim) Forer, brother Steve (Barbara) Michel, and sister Dierdre (Raz) Siraki; also his wife, Christine Smith, and sons Cody (Stefanie Szarka) Smith, Josh Smith, Johnny (Laura) Vasquez, Marc Mullen, and daughter-in-law Carrie Blackmore Smith.

Services will be held Dec. 7 at St. Columban Church, 894 Oakland Road, Loveland, OH 45140. Visitation begins at 9:30 a.m. with a Catholic Mass at 10:30 a.m. The family asks that memorials be made to St. Columban.

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