Peter Smith

Peter Smith who was a force of community leadership through building, political action, a husband, and father of six passed away at home during an afternoon New Mexico rain on June 3, 2018. He was 90. For more than 60 years, Pete was a prominent figure in Corrales with years active in Democratic county politics and running for Sandoval County Commissioner in 1963. Heading planning and zoning in the newly incorporated township of Corrales, Pete implemented visionary ideas of a community that established a visual aesthetic way of life so many enjoy today. At the state level, Pete attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago as a McCarthy delegate vehemently opposing the War, while reporting back nightly to his wife, the renown sculptress Patricia Waterman Smith, the riotous actions on Michigan Avenue. Above the dated drill press in Pete’s Woodworking Shop where so many learned from Pete’s left-handed carpentry skills and talent, the yellowed and raggedy edged front page of the Albuquerque Journal dated August 9, 1974 reads "Nixon Resigns." Of recent, still active in political thought, Pete spoke of Nixon as no longer the worst president in the history of the United States. Pete’s long career was his work, and his body of work stands in high acclaim and reverence. The homes he designed and built in New Mexico were the perfect artistic blending of traditional New Mexico adobe with classic New England carpentry design, and with the best and purest intuitive sense of modernist architecture. Pete’s notorious and infamous Shop housed,—a blacksmith’s forge where any metal part was crafted, turned or made, Pete’s children joked that when a hinge was needed it was necessary to first dig iron ore, —a planer used by the railroad was bought in Belen for scrap metal, converted from steam to gasoline and used for the boards that became extraordinary carved doors, furniture, Corrales historical signs, the bar in the Old Territorial House, the floor of the Old Church and the front desk at the Community Library, —and an old treadle printing press salvaged from a junk yard on 2nd Street where type was set to print political flyers, announcements for the first Corrales Art Association, gallery show openings and, and the annual Firemen’s Ball. Outside the Woodworking Shop near the road is the Boat Yard the "Astillero del Norte." Pete was building a 42 foot steel sail boat with a tabernacle mast and a rounded deck to cross the Atlantic and replace his and Patricia’s Yankee Spirit, the familiar object in the stories and recollections of sailing with Pete that became truthful tales of absurdly perilous experiences where mortality was of no concern to Pete; these stories have become shared laughter. The Corrales Historical Society’s Old Church and the Albuquerque Museum’s Casa San Ysidro became the Corrales landmarks of Pete’s work as well as the Band Shell in the Park where music in Corrales found a perfect venue replacing a flat bed truck. The Program of Music for the Symphony Brass of New Mexico reads, "The shell was constructed for the pleasure and benefit of all people who enjoy music. It is meant to bring pleasure to the people who live in this community as well as any who happen to come to be here. It was conceived and brought about with this purpose in mind under the direction of its designer and builder, Pete Smith, to whom the Village of Corrales wishes to express its thanks by naming the acoustic Shell in honor of his work" (1989). Pete was born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts on July 14, to Vernon and Peggy Smith. He attended Hamilton College and graduated with a degree in English literature and French. Pete would later comment that with an English degree you need a framing hammer. Pete relocated to Corrales in 1955 where he met his wife Patricia whom he married while camping in Taos. Pete will be missed by his community, friends, family, grandchildren, and two great-grand girls, but in Pete’s own unique way, it is assured that he will miss his perfect life of wondrous adventure, divine work, and the joy of limitless creation. Peter Smith’s family is honored to have your company Tuesday evening at 6 p.m., June 19, at the Corrales Old Church, on Old Church Road across from Casa San Ysidro, to celebrate Pete’s life and work.