Meet Your Community: Robert W. Smith

ob Smith grew up “all over the place,” including the hills of West Virginia, where he remembers hours of tromping around in the woods as a young boy. He came to Michigan in 1967 after serving in the Army, including a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam. He attended the University of Michigan where he received a BA degree in Psychology and an MSW in Administration. In 1977 he moved to Adrian and has worked in child services with the state Family Independence Agency ever since. His wife and daughter are also social workers. He will be retiring next spring.

Bob did not wait until retirement to take up a hobby. In the late 1970s his interest in nature photography motivated him to determine the identity of his plant subjects. Exploring the plant kingdom in Lenawee county soon became his primary interest, with photography becoming more of a means of documentation. This avocation has also served as a much needed pressure relief valve from an often stressful job.

In 1980 he was driving down Ives Road when he spotted a promising area. He found many interesting plants in the fen adjacent to the River Raisin and got The Nature Conservancy interested in the area. In 1982 he did the initial botanical survey. In 1986 TNC called him because “they thought he would like to know” that a recent bequest would allow them to acquire the first parcel of what is now known as the Ives Road Fen, south of the Raisin Valley Golf Club. The preserved fen has since grown to 660 acres.

Bob maintains a list of all plants identified in Lenawee county. It now numbers just over 1,400 species, 600 of which he discovered. About a dozen of those had never been found in Michigan before. He welcomes calls that will inspire him to lace up his boots in his quest to add yet one more species to the list. You can reach him at 517-265-3521. (Bob was one of the participants in our Kiwanis Trail walk — story on page 3)

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