The personification of integrity, honesty, and humility, Jim Allison Smith, age 81, of Austin, TX, died peacefully on May 1, 2020. Although we lost him to the cruel grasp of Alzheimer’s years ago, graciously, he has now gone on to join the communion of saints, and glory in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
Jim was born in Sweetwater, TX on January 21, 1939. His parents, Gaylon Orr Smith and Edmond Franklin Smith, died when he and his younger brother, Stephen Franklin Smith, were still children. They were raised in Coleman, TX by their Grandmother, Aunt, and Uncle. While in high school he worked at a snow cone stand and a grain elevator, and graduated at the top of his class. He spent his freshman year of college at Rice University while hitchhiking back and forth to Coleman to visit his high school sweetheart, Jare Horne. When the commute became too cumbersome, he eventually transferred to UT where he graduated with Honors, with a BBA in Accounting.
He and Jare married in June, 1961, and they moved to Dallas where Jim began his career with Arthur Andersen and Co. and served a stint in the National Guard. In 1966, Jim and Jare moved to Austin where he had been recruited to serve as Comptroller at Tracor, Inc, Austin’s first high tech company. Jim and Jare quickly became an integral part of the Austin community and have called Central Texas home for more than half a century. It is where they raised their two children, Stephen Matthew and Amanda.
