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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO SYDNEY STROTHER SMITH III
______
HON. H. MORGAN GRIFFITH
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Friday, May 17, 2019
Mr. GRIFFITH. Madam Speaker, I pay tribute to Sydney Strother Smith
III of Abingdon, Virginia, a faithful servant of his God and country.
Strother was born on August 1, 1941, to Strother and Betsy Smith. His
father was one of the Army's last commissioned cavalry officers, and
during young Strother's baptism at Fort Knox on December 7, 1941, news
from Pearl Harbor interrupted the service. As his father fought in
World War II as a tank commander, Strother lived in Richmond with his
mother and grandfather. They remained there after his father returned
from the war.
Hoping to follow in his father's footsteps by joining the military,
Strother enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. A
fall from cliffs broke his back, however, and ended hopes of a military
career. Among his roommates at VMI, he was the only one not to die in
Vietnam, convincing him that God had a different purpose for his life.
Strother is known as a dedicated and effective organizer of the
Republican Party in Virginia. He was the founding president of the
Young Republicans Club at the University of Richmond and served as vice
president of the statewide Young Republicans Federation, where he
helped expand the number of clubs statewide and met his future wife
Barbara. He managed his father's successful campaign for the Virginia
House of Delegates as a Republican at a time when Virginia was still
largely controlled by the Democratic Party and went on to manage other
campaigns for the House of Delegates, United States Senate, and House
of Representatives. After moving to Washington County to practice law,
he became an active member of the county party and instilled it with
new blood. He served as chairman of the county party from 1974 to 1980
and, along with Professor Ray Hancock, organized the College
Republicans at Emory and Henry College, my alma mater.
Strother also achieved distinction in his legal career. He became one
of the youngest attorneys to argue in front of the United States
Supreme Court and would return several times, as well as appear before
the Virginia Supreme Court. He was drawn toward cases in which he
championed the underdog. One example unfolded over 25 years as he
represented an elderly Kentucky mountain man, John Johnson, and
eventually Mr. Johnson's heirs against the industrial giant Bethlehem
Minerals. Mr. Johnson claimed rights over the coal on his property, and
Strother argued his case up to the Kentucky Supreme Court, then to the
U.S. Supreme Court, and back to Kentucky. When the case was finally
resolved, Mr. Johnson's heirs and co-litigants were awarded $37 million
in damages, and willful trespassing became part of mineral rights law.
Strother relished such cases and often engaged in them on a pro bono
basis, about which his wife sometimes noted that his family had bills
to pay, too.
Strother was an active member of the Anglican Church. He was a
chancellor, canon lawyer, and a priest ordained in 1987, and he helped
to found and rector six parishes. He also belonged to numerous civic
organizations. He was an Eagle Scout as a boy and a scout leader as an
adult, a member of the Sons of the Revolution, and a reenactor with the
Mountain Men of Revolutionary War fame. An amateur pilot, a published
poet, a joke collector and storyteller, he is a man of seemingly
endless talents but one: punctuality. His nickname, the ``Late Great
Strother Smith,'' reflects his habit of being late to just about
everything, including his wedding. The one exception: voting, which he
would always be in line for by 6 am.
Strother's family includes his wife of 53 years, Barbara Ann Smith;
daughters Ambler Dumler and her husband John, Sydney Smith and her
husband Tim Gilhool, and Beth and her husband Andy Stockner; brother,
Richard Smith and his wife Sarah of Alexandria, VA; sister Rev.
Caroline Parkinson of Nashville, TN; and grandchildren Josef, Marshall,
and Aidan Dumler, Jimmy and Molly Gilhool, and Virginia, Josie, and
Cora Stockner.
____________________
