Veteran profile: Through a unique program, Lee Smith served the United States and Columbia Falls
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
Back when Lee Smith was in college in the 1950s the U.S. military had what was known as a “critical skills program.”
Smith enlisted in the military, but as long as he went to work in a field that was deemed critical to the U.S. government, he was deferred from active duty.
So, the Butte native chose to study chemical engineering at Montana State University and then went on to have a distinguished career at the Anaconda Aluminum Co. He started out working in the company’s lab in 1956 and rose through the ranks in his 30-plus year career.
He worked a few years in the new plant’s lab (it became operational in 1955), then in production and ultimately became plant manager and then in external affairs.
“It (the career) deferred me forever,” he said with a smile during a recent interview at the Montana Veterans Home, where Smith, 91, resides with his wife, Joan.
“The fact that you spend 24 hours a day seven days a week producing a commodity that people needed; it’s fun to do that,” Smith said in a 2005 interview with the Hungry Horse News.
He was involved with the transition to computer control at the plant, which made it far more efficient. Rather than a worker making an educated case, the computer data told a supervisor exactly what was going on.
He also oversaw the plant’s conversion top the Sumitomo process in making aluminum, which allowed the plant to make state standards for fluoride emissions and ultimately, kept it operational.
“It was really a godsend,” he said in 2005.
While the career at the aluminum plant and his life in Columbia Falls are dear to him, playing football at Butte High School standout after all these years as well.
Smith was a running back and linebacker for the Bulldogs, graduating in 1950. In his senior year, the team rumbled its way to the state championship game in the fall of 1949. They were favored, according to newspaper stories of the day.
Back then, the state championship football game was played on Thanksgiving Day.
“It was the tradition,” Smith recalled. “They would hold a big Thanksgiving dinner for both teams after the game.”
Butte lost to Great Falls 18-6. The game was tied at the half, but the Bison pulled away in the second half against the Bulldogs for the state AA championship.
Smith is now enshrined in Butte Bulldog football history
Earlier this fall, he was inducted as the 20th member of the Butte High Diamond Bs by the Butte Silver B organization. The diamond designation notes that he graduated 75 years ago and was a Letterman in football. The award is not given posthumously
The Silver B organization, which was founded in 1940, strives to preserve the history and reverence of football at Butte High School and now Smith forever is recognized in that storied history.
Smith was given a commemorative plaque and a fantastic history of the team when Smith played, with stories of the team from newspaper accounts of the day in a 6-inch thick binder, assembled by Silver B historian Scott Paffhausen, who has volunteered countless hours putting together histories for individual Butte players as well as teams over the school’s history.
Today, Smith and his wife Joan reside at the Montana Veterans Home in a quiet room overlooking a courtyard. On some days, goats that live at the home’s garden graze out the couple’s window. They like it here, Smith said.
They have been married for 63 years. They have three grown girls, Nancy, Marcy and Carol and have six grandchildren, four step grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and four step great-grandchildren.
Lee Smith as a Butte Bulldog in 1949.
Newspaper clippings from the title game.