Richard Stacy Smith, 85, of Warren, Vt., and formerly of Newtown, died September 24 at Wilton Meadows Health Care Center, with his loving family by his side. He was born on November 27, 1931, in Waltham, Mass., son of the late C. Ruggles and Frances Smith.

Mr Smith was in the third graduating class (1954) from Brandeis University, a school his grandfather had originally founded as Middlesex University. While attending Brandeis, he joined the US Navy Reserve and upon graduating, served in the Navy on board the aircraft carrier, USS Midway, as a photographic specialist.

After stints in the Navy in Miramar, Calif., and Guam, Mr Smith was employed by both major corporations and large institutions of higher learning in positions of college placement, career counseling, and engineering/technical placement. The last 15 years of his professional career was spent as the founder and president of a human resources and career counseling group with offices in two Connecticut towns.

Although graduating from college with a BA in American and British literature, he also had a minor in biology, both of which served him well in his livelong interests of art and science. Mr Smith considered himself as a nonconformist, a staunch liberal, an adventurist, and romanticist. His love of nature, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, and his hero Henry David Thoreau were well known.

His daughter, Michele Tamar; his son, Derek Winslow and his wife Kim; and five beautiful grandchildren, Christian, Sean, Hunter, Callie, and Shane, survive him.

A Memorial Service will be conducted on Saturday, September 30, at 1 pm, at the Black Rock Congregational Church, 3685 Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield.

To leave an online condolences, visit hoytfuneralhome.com.