The woodcarving pictured above is on permanent display at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Greenville, SC.

FULIR is now OLLI

In Memory of 

WILLIAM ALAN SMOKE

"Smoke"

August 31, 1941 to October 24, 2007

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Gray Matters Newsletter

(FULIR) Furman University Learning In Retirement

March-April 2004

Profile: Bill Smoke

By Connie Irby

Bill Smoke has beaten so many odds that only a fool would bet against him. Born in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1941, he was raised in foster homes until age six, when Bill’s mother arranged for him to live with his stepfather’s family near Greenville, S.C. They lived on a tenant farm and needed a field hand. Conditions were spartan on the farm. Bill found out that racial prejudice existed when he was forbidden to play with neighboring black children. He had previously been treated well by a black woman who worked in a foster home and often cooked him piles of pancakes. A neighborhood black man had let him watch him at work and explained the way he made things to the young boy.With no playmates, Bill spent his free time alone in the woods carving various objects from wood. At home he did a 20-minute Bible reading daily. In school Bill was an A-student and later a successful football player.

Although Bill liked the grand-parents in the home, he did not get along with the stepparents and was abused. In ninth grade, he began to get into trouble at school, and after football season, was suspended. At age 13, Bill forged papers to join the Army. He spent 1955-58 in Germany as a tank driver and radio operator in the Tenth Mountain Division. Discharged at age 16, Bill worked in construction for Fluor Daniel, stationed at the Catawba Power Plant. There he got to know many Indians on the nearby reservation, including Chief Blue, whose daughter was a nurse. Through her, he met his first wife, who was also a nurse.

 They had two children, Tonya, now 43, who owns a barber business in Jacksonville, Fla., and Anthony, now 42 and a Clemson graduate, who is an electrical engineer currently doing software research in Cairo. Bill and his wife were divorced in 1979, but remain friends.

After 10 years in construction work, Bill realized that he needed an education to get ahead in life. In 1965-66, he became the first GED adult graduate at Greenville Tech. Hazel Hall of Greenville Tech wrote him a recommendation to Clemson, and in 1966, Bill entered Clemson, finishing in eight semesters. He made the dean’s list for seven semesters. During school, Bill worked nights and weekends, studying after work, rising early to prepare breakfast and take the children to school when his wife left at 7 a.m. for her job. Bill was also a graduate assistant, helping to grade papers, cleaning test mice cages, and filling in at classes. He took 21 and 22 hours in his last two semesters, graduating with a 3.7 GPA with a double major in psychology and sociology.

At age 30, Bill obtained his dream job as a salesman at Owens Corning Fiberglass. He traveled to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, among other places, on work assignments. His dreams came to a screeching halt on Jan. 20, 1972, when he had a massive heart attack. Bill was hospitalized for two months and not allowed to work for a year. Corning gave him a year’s severance pay and continued his health insurance until he could get on his feet. His case was inoperable at the time, and Bill went to work for the State of South Carolina in vocational rehabilitation as a liaison to the medical community and carrying his own caseload. He pursued a master’s degree at USC-Spartanburg until the state stopped tuition aid when he was halfway through. After six more years of suffering a series of heart attacks, in 1978 his doctors gave him three-to-five years to live and advised him to retire on disability. During one of his hospital stays, he grew a thick beard. When he returned to work to show his friends, he was sent home for a dress code infraction. Bill protested and had the dress code changed, becoming the first state employee to wear a full beard (which he still sports).

 After the doctors gave him a death warrant and following his divorce, Bill felt he didn’t have much of a future until he met his current wife, Kathryn, whom he mostly credits for his survival. Bill and Kathryn have traveled throughout the continental United States. They’ve driven the back roads of Alaska in a Chevy Blazer with a boat on top pulling a cargo trailer, but sleeping inside when bears were in the neighborhood where they spent the night. They chartered a ski plane and landed on Mt. Denali, fishing there for halibut. They crossed Nova Scotia and journeyed all along the California coast. In 1986, Bill and a friend sailed a 25-foot boat to the Bahamas.

In 1994, Bill suffered congestive heart failure, almost dying four times in six weeks. The doctors performed an emergency quadruple bypass, and two weeks later a pacemaker was implanted. Between1998 and 2000, he had four angioplasties and two new stents. In 2001, a pacemaker-defibrillator was implanted. When Kathryn took a job in the Sports Medicine Department at Furman, Bill switched from the Life Center to the PAC Center. He found information about FULIR there, and credits the FULIR program for opening the worlds of art and history to him. Bill’s artistic talents were nurtured in many classes: Cantey DuBose’s Pen and Ink, Betty Manley’s Watercolor, Basket Weaving with Roy Green and Walter Lavash, Wood Carving with Ed Brockelbank.Other courses he has enjoyed are Joseph Campbell, journal writing, creative writing, art museum classes,all four computer classes, and Northern Plains Indians.

Bill has many Indian friends,spending time with the Ocala, Sioux,Ute, and Catawba, attending powwows and other cultural events.He is a prolific wood carver, recently finishing a black-walnut owl with a Brancusi design, an artful little swan, and many other pieces. He is looking forward to the Charlotte Wood Carving Show and is a member of the Wood Carving Guild. Bill has also taken many classes at Michael McDunn’s Gallery and Shop in Greenville on basic and advanced cabinet making, small-boxcrafting, and bowl turning. With a new lathe and a truck full of logs, Bill is looking forward to turning out many new bowls.

Bill said that FULIR has been the greatest thing for him and that he feels like a seedling in a sequoia forest,learning and gleaning from so many people in the program. Bill fishes one day a week and has three boats. He also wades and fly fishes. He used to hike with FULIR but had to give it up due to leg problems.

Bill is grateful for the help he’s received over the years, and 32 years after he was given no more than five years to live and after nine heart attacks, he’s probably lived several lives by most standards. His positive attitude, zest for life, and enthusiasm are a joy to be around. Bill was blessed with brains and determination. When I asked him if he thrived because of, or in spite of, his early problems, he said he’s asked himself that many times and doesn’t know, but that as a little child he always felt special. Bill Smoke is special—and here’s to the special child in all of us. If I were one of his Indian friends, I’d call him “Great