David K. Smith, 55

David K. Smith, 55, of Missouri Valley, Iowa, died Friday, March 9, at Community Memorial Hospital in Missouri Valley.

No services are planned.

David Keith Smith was born Nov. 13, 1956, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to David C. Smith and Barbara (McCoy) Smith. Dave worked as a press supervisor for the Enterprise Publishing Co. in Blair, and was nearing his 33rd year with the company.

David was married to Janet Smith.

He is survived by his wife, Janet; two daughters, Alexis Smith and Julia Smith; and mother, Barbara.

He was preceded in death by his father and sister, Debra Conant.

Hennessey-Aman Funeral Home in Missouri Valley was in charge of arrangements.

The following was published Friday, March 16, 2012; Article written by Mark Rhoades, publisher of the Enterprise and Pilot-Tribune, Blair, NE

The Enterprise lost a long time special family member last week. Dave Smith, our pressman for the last 34 years, passed away while on a walk with his wife. He was 55. His passing came as a complete shock to all of us who knew him. He seemed healthy, hardly ever missed a day of work, didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, and wasn’t a bit over weight. We joked each year when we took our company Christmas photos that we didn’t need to take a new picture of Dave, because he never seemed to age.

I can still remember the day Dave walked in the office, just out of high school to apply as a pressman’s apprentice. Since the job didn’t require any experience, I think we hired him because we thought he was a nice guy, smiled and was polite. We sure made the right decision when we hired him back in 1978.

Dave learned the printing trade during his first decade here, and then took the helm as our head pressman for the last 25 years. He didn’t ever have any formal training, and learned everything on the job. He learned it well, and as we continued to grow as a publishing company, Dave grew with us.

When Dave first started with the company, we probably did six or seven press runs a week. Now we sometimes do a dozen in one day. Some weeks, Dave would stop in my office on a Friday to tell me they’d done 35 press runs that week, cranked out over 100,000 papers, and made all of our deadlines. No big deal. Then he’d smile and say, “See you Monday.”

Most of you never knew Dave but yet you kind of did. You touched his work every week because he’s been printing the papers you read all these years. Last year he was at the controls of our press which cranked out over 5 million papers. His color reproduction work won dozens of awards at press conventions. Our calculation on how many papers he printed during his career with us is over 150 million.

Dave passed away late Friday afternoon, March 9. On Monday, March 12, 7:30 a.m. we had to start up the press again, and start cranking out the newspapers for all the communities we serve. Our readers expect their paper in the mailbox on time. Our staff here at the Enterprise, and through our publishing group, stepped up and offered to help in any way they could. And, with everyone’s assistance, we got through the week.

In reality, Dave leaves a lasting monument to his work here at the Enterprise. The papers he printed are in scrapbooks in hundreds of homes. The bound files of our newspapers are preserved in our archives in our office for future generations.

Yes, we’ll hire another press operator, but we’ll never replace Dave. For those of us who were lucky enough to work with him, we will never forget him. For those of you who didn’t, we hope when you’re reading your paper this week you’ll think of Dave.