In Memoriam – Wesley Lynn Smail

Blessed are the meek: For they shall inherit the earth.
St. Matthew 5:5

Wesley Lynn Smail 1970 - 2005

Our friend and six-year employee who held the position of Senior Marketing Manager, 35 year old Wesley Lynn Smail departed this life on Sunday, June 26, while spending a day with his wife and two young daughters on Lake Shelbyville. He was not known to have heart problems, but he collapsed and died quite suddenly, apparently of some type of heart failure. Wes had recently completed building a new home in Mt. Zion.

I first met Wes in 1999 when he came to interview for an opening we had in Marketing. An artist by education and God-given talent, he had held several graphic artist positions but had had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of job cutbacks at a number of successive employers. His earnestness and simplicity were impressive. I still remember his kneeling down and opening his portfolio to show us his workmanship. I later received a superb reference on him from Howard Buffett, (son of the famous financier Warren Buffett) who had been an officer at his previous employer.

A soft spoken and mild mannered person, Wes soon became part of the fabric of our company. We always knew we could count on him for any assignment. And he had a variety of roles in addition to graphics arts, from event planning to newsletter writing. He did every job with particularity and quality.

We will all miss him dearly. Attending the visitation in Moweaqua, Illinois, his boyhood home, it seemed as if the entire town had turned out, as a long line stretched far outside the funeral home in very hot weather. The staff left coolers full of bottled water along the line to help prevent the mourners from fainting in the heat.

At the funeral service the following day, he was remembered by his friends from his boyhood and college days, recounting many stories of this shy, kind, and talented man. The statement I shall never forget made by one of them was, “Now I know there’s a heaven; because there’s nowhere else that Wes could possibly be.”