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Rufus Grant Smith

Apr 19, 2024

Rufus Grant Smith, known as Grant Smith, passed away April 6, 2024, surrounded by his loving family.

He had suffered a heart attack a few days earlier and was not able to recover.

He was born in 1938 in Mineola, New York during a hurricane. As a child he lived with his father, who was in the Foreign Service. He attended Woodstock School, a Christian missionary school in India, and graduated from Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. He went on to graduate from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and then received his master’s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He joined the Marine Corps and, having passed the State Department’s Foreign Service exam, transited to reserve status.

Grant served a full career with the Department of State, specializing in South Asia. He served in Pakistan and Nepal and had three tours in India, the last as Deputy Chief of Mission and Acting Ambassador. He served in the Central African Republic and in Belize. He worked in the Department of State on Middle East issues and spent a year at the Council on Foreign Relations. His final overseas assignment was Ambassador to Tajikistan, which had recently received independence from the Soviet Union and was consumed by civil war. He had a key role in peace negotiations there. He ended his career as a fellow at the Army Peacekeeping Institute at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

He continued his commitment to public service after he retired from the State Department and moved to Jefferson County, West Virginia. For many years, he was a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Central Asia and Caucuses Institute in Washington. He joined the Board of The Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle in 2001, later becoming its President, and worked to secure conservation easements on properties all over West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. He was instrumental in saving many acres of land, including sites associated with Civil War battlefields and other historic properties.

For many years, Grant taught a course called “Great Decisions” with Shepherd University’s Lifelong Learning Program.

He is survived by his wife, Renny Travers Smith; his children, R. Justin Smith, and C. Adair Smith; their spouses, Pamela Phan and John Bender, and two grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations to The Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle, at landtrustepwv.orgm would be appreciated. Condolences to the family may be expressed at www.eackles-spencerfuneralhome.com.