Dr. Franklin Smith, Lung Specialist Who Flew High But Always Safely

Patrick Smith thinks of his safety-conscious father and laughs. "When he got his first airplane, he'd say, `The sky is blue, let's go flying.'

"When he got the next plane with all the instruments, he'd say, `Its cloudy, let's go flying.' And he'd fly in the clouds."

His father, Dr. Franklin Smith, died at his Lake Washington home May 11 after a year-long battle with Parkinson's disease.

Dr. Smith had served as president of the Evergreen Safety Council. "One of his main interests was safety," his son recalls. "When I told him I was going to take scuba-diving lessons, he took me into his study and sat me down and talked to me."

At that time, Dr. Smith was working to improve the safety of diving through research on air embolism and hyperbaric pressure. Patrick Smith suspects his class received extra instruction because of his father's work and name recognition.

Dr. Smith was born in Milwaukee in 1917 and graduated from Marquette Medical School in 1941, after spending his final year in bed because of tuberculosis and asthma.

To finance that education, Dr. Smith turned the family home into a medical fraternity house after his father's death and helped write and publish a series of medical class outlines.

He opened an office in Kirkland during World War II and treated sick and injured workers at a shipyard on what now is Carillon Point. He also joined the Medical Security Clinic that now is known as Group Health Cooperative.

Dr. Smith studied five years at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and specialized in thoracic surgery. He wrote his dissertation for a doctorate in anatomy on lung research and segmentation.

He was a prolific writer of medical treatises concerning his specialty, his son said.

He opened an office in the Medical-Dental Building in downtown Seattle in 1951. He retired from practice in 1987.

Dr. Smith was a member of the American College of Chest Physicians and past president of the U.S. section of the International College of Surgeons.

He was a member of the Flying Physicians Association, the Rainier Club, the Washington Athletic Club, the Seattle Tennis Club, the Seattle Art Museum and the Museum of History and Industry.

Besides his son, of Seattle, Dr. Smith is survived by his wife, Lenore; daughters Peggy Smith, La Conner, Skagit County, and Penny Eppers, Denver; and two brothers, Chet and Will Smith, both in Wisconsin.

The family suggests remembrances be made to the International College of Surgeons, the Department of Biological Structure at the UW School of Medicine, St. Mark's Cathedral Organ Fund or the Evergreen Safety Council.

A memorial service for Dr. Smith was May 18 at St. Mark's Cathedral.