Friday, January 29, 2016 3:54 pm
John (Jack) Zachary Smith passed away at the Harmony Gundersen Care Center in Harmony, Minn. Jan. 26, 2016. Funeral services will be held at Greenfield Lutheran Church in Harmony, Minn. at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, with interment at Greenfield Lutheran Cemetery. Friends may call at the church from 1 p.m. until time of services.
Jack was born Jan. 26, 1933, to William Michael Smith and Hilda Marie (Harstad) Smith on their ranch near Parker, Colorado.
When he was two years old, the family returned to Harmony, Minn. where they purchased a farm on the State Line Road south of Harmony that had been owned by Jack’s great-grandfather Tallak Brokken.
Jack attended country grade school, and he was confirmed at Greenfield Lutheran Church where he was a lifelong member.
He graduated from Harmony High School in Harmony, Minn. in 1950, and was awarded a scholarship to Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.
But due to his father’s poor health, Jack took over operation of the family farm and expanded it. He married Joan Donna Johnson in Winona, Minn. Dec. 21, 1956.
Together they developed a herd of purebred Registered Holsteins that earned awards for production and breed. Their family farm received the Century Farm designation in 1996. In 2013, Jack and Joan moved from their farm into Harmony.
He is survived by his children: Shelley (Dave) Curtis of Sunnyvale, Calif., Kari Damhoff of Littleton, Colo. and John (Nancy) Smith Jr. of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; his grandchildren: Shawn Damhoff, Zachary Damhoff and Shiloh Curtis; and his sisters, Thelma Klicker of Palm Coast, Fla. and Willa (Jim) Burns of Palm Coast, Fla.
Jack was preceded in death by his parents, wife Joan, and infant son John.
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