Donald Edwin Smith

Donald E. Smith, lover of Christ and pioneer missionary pilot, peacefully ended his earthly journey and entered into eternal rest on September 25, 2023 at the age of 95.

Don was born in Indianola, Iowa on October 15, 1927 and raised on Iowa farms in Norwalk and New Virginia. He acquired his love for the Lord at an early age, as well as a keen interest in aviation. As a boy, Don would stop the horses in the field whenever a plane flew over and watch it from horizon to horizon. He enlisted in the Navy in January, 1946 and served three years as an electronics technician. While in Texas for training at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, Don met his future bride, Jeanne Whitworth, and they were married in 1948. Don’s Navy discharge documents record his desire for Bible training after his discharge, as well as his “Preferred Profession” of “Aviation, Pilot, Midwest”. After discharge from the Navy, Don enrolled at Moody Bible Institute and graduated in 1952 among the first class of four missionary aviation graduates from MBI, all of whom became JAARS missionary pilots. After initial aviation and aircraft maintenance training at Boeing in Wichita and Spartan Aviation in Tulsa, Don and Jeanne applied to serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators’ aviation branch, the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS), and Don became the seventh pilot accepted into JAARS as a pilot-mechanic. Like other JAARS pilots of the day, Don was an excellent mechanic who was creative and ingenious in finding ways to fix things that didn’t really want to be fixed, and his skill as a bush pilot was demonstrated over many years and in many circumstances.

As a missionary pilot serving in 1950’s and 1960’s South America, Don had opportunity to share Christ often, both while in the cockpit and in formal presentations. His life was a witness to native peoples, politicians, mission supporters in the States, friends, his aviation proteges, and many world travelers “just passing through”. Over decades and thousands of flight hours he safely flew countless missions to transport and re-supply Wycliffe translators in some of the most remote areas of South America. Medical evacuations to save lives, including Shapra Chief Tariri in Peru, were conducted on many occasions. As a member of the Ecuador survey team from Yarina Cocha in the late ‘50’s, Don piloted the Aeronca aircraft on floats which flew from Peru with Uncle Cam to explore Limon Cocha as a potential site for Wycliffe’s Ecuador base. While serving in Limon Cocha, he became the first pilot to land on the Tiwaeno airstrip among the Waorani (“Aucas”), and was an integral part of the Wycliffe-JAARS team which included Rachel Saint and the Waorani believers, as well as others, during the time of outreach to the downriver Waorani groups in the early 1960’s. Later he served on the crew of the “Tariri” JAARS DC-3 which was based in Quito in the 1960’s and 70’s and operated in the Andes and Amazon regions of South America.

Don and Jeanne shared a life-long passion to share Christ and reach the lost through missions. Their lives were motivated by an intense desire to see God’s Word translated in native tongues so that it might become a light in the darkness and bring many to Christ. Missionary aviation became the tool which God used to make this possible. They were assigned initially to serve at Yarina Cocha, the Wycliffe base in the Amazon Basin of eastern Peru. Later service with JAARS included nine years in Ecuador and assignments in Sudan, Philippines, and Indonesia. As a training pilot based in Waxhaw beginning in the early 1970’s, Don had the privilege of helping to train generations of JAARS pilots, and was a beloved and respected mentor to many younger pilots preparing for the field. He embraced new technology and incorporated it where it was applicable. He developed an ingenious calculator-based navigation program which integrated aircraft performance specifications for multiple aircraft with global navigation coordinates to assist missionary pilots in navigating areas without modern electronic navigation aids. While based at JAARS in Waxhaw, he participated in many Wycliffe recruitment efforts such as Missions at the Airport and Wycliffe Associates, making many, many friends and encouraging them in support for missions.

After Jeanne’s passing in April, 1998, Don met Maxine Allison, and they were married in 2009, enjoying thirteen years together before her passing in July of last year.

Don’s love for Christ shone in everything he did. He shared Christ not only through his life’s work, but his personal witness, his love of music, his love of Scripture, and his love for his family and friends. Later in life, even as his memory began to fail, he still was ready and eager to say a prayer of thanksgiving for his Lord, his life, his family, and friends.

A graveside service will be held at 3:30 PM on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, in Lakeland Memorial Park Cemetery and a Celebration of Life will be held at 2:30 PM on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, in the JAARS Townsend Building auditorium at the JAARS Center in Waxhaw.

Don is preceded in death by his beloved wife, Jeanne, and his third son, Ben. He is also predeceased by his parents, Miriam and Truman; two sisters, Helen and Millie, and two brothers, Ted and Harold. He is survived by sons Tim (Dinah), Mark (Linda), Scott (Margaret); a daughter, Susan (Dave); daughter-in-law (Faith); thirteen grandchildren (Sarah, Leah, Joanna, Laura, Katy, Krista, Heather, Jeremiah, Matt, Chris, Rachel, Cristina, and Andrew); and sixteen great-grandchildren.

The family would like to extend special appreciation to all of Don’s loving friends and caregivers who reached out over many years to be the hands of Christ to Don. The compassion and care he received from the VA at the North Carolina State Veteran’s Home in Salisbury by the Pruitt Health and Pruitt Hospice staff was absolutely incomparable and is very much appreciated by the family.

The family rejoices that Don is no longer suffering and is present with the Lord, but we sorrow as we grieve his absence from us. Yet do we hope in Christ; for precious are the promises of Christ concerning eternal life for those whom He calls His own.

Online condolences may be made at www.gordonfunealservice.com.

Gordon Funeral Service and Crematory, 1904 Lancaster Ave, Monroe, NC 28112 in honored to be entrusted to care for the Smith Family.