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Rodney Lee Smith, age 61, passed away Friday, January 6, 2017.

He was born on November 17, 1955 in Fairfax, Missouri, to Marlin Kent “Corky” Smith and Marilyn Jane Grindstaff Smith. He graduated from Fairfax High School. He married Kathleen Muldrew on November 9, 1974 and they made their home in Omaha and Blair, Nebraska, where they raised their children. Rod was educated as a computer programmer and worked at MACC in Blair, Nebraska for 25 years, rising to the rank of Vice-President. He then started a successful fundraising business which he was still managing at the time of his death.

Rod loved everyone and never met a stranger. He was known to strike up a conversation with anyone, anytime, even in a foreign country where he didn’t know the language, (hand gestures and facial expressions would be his go to communication). He loved golfing with his buddies from Blair and Don and Jill, loved his Cornhuskers, the Mizzou Tigers, and was extremely passionate about those Kansas City Chiefs.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Herbert and Leona Smith, Orb and Dorothy Grindstaff; his parents, Marlin and Marilyn Smith; a sister-in-law, Barbara Muldrew; and niece, Melissa Muldrew Richmond.

Left to cherish his memory are his wife, Kathy; his children, Jeff (Heidi) Smith and Jill (Steve) Wolff; his mother-in-law, Helen Muldrew; his siblings, Tim (Kelly) Smith, Mark (Jody) Smith, Angela DeLong (Aaron May), and Brian (Dana) Smith; brothers-in-law, Dan (Janet) Muldrew,and Dennis Muldrew; his beloved grandchildren, Owen and Zachary Smith, Madeline, Ella and Evelyn Wolff; aunt and uncle, Ben and Mary Ann Hash; nieces and nephews, Brian (Kendal) Muldrew, Dell Richmond, Suzanne (Michael) Lopez, Ashley Williams (Laura Gomez), Marlie Smith, Corie and Tyler DeLong, Emma and Jase Smith; and one great-nephew, Atticus Muldrew; cousins, and many, many friends.

Funeral Services Thursday at 2pm at St. Peters Church, 1 Bluff St., Council Bluffs, Iowa. Refreshments and fellowship will follow services at Kottas Hall at St. Peters. Family will direct memorials

Cutler-O’Neill-Meyer-Woodring Bayliss Park Chapel, 545 Willow Ave., Council Bluffs, IA

~~~Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~