Obituary: Arnold Jerome Smith, 90, Remembered For Warmth And Humor

Arnold Jerome Smith, 90, son of William and Bess (Kaplan) Smith, died peacefully in Delray Beach, Florida, on Saturday, June 17, 2023. He is survived by his brothers Robert (Phyllis), Neil (Paula), daughters Leslie Smith Mignault (John) and Elizabeth Smith Gene, and grandchildren Helene, Madeleine (Jenn), Diane, and Andrew.

From the family of Arnold Jerome Smith.

He was predeceased by Peter Lawrence Smith, his beloved son, and Edith Walke Smith, the love of his life.

Arnold was born in Brooklyn in 1932 and loved the Dodgers and then the Mets. He attended Yeshiva of Flatbush, The Ramaz School, and Columbia University, where he played varsity basketball. He was an officer in the Navy from 1954-1956. Arnold’s professional life was spent in the Fulton Fish Market; first as a salesman for Caleb Haley & Co., and then, with his brother Bob, as a co-owner of Arrow Seafoods.

Arnold especially treasured his lifelong friends from Pine Lake Park, where he dominated the weekly pickup basketball games until he retired at 65. He spent another fifteen years playing softball in Palm Beach’s Senior League. Before Edith got sick, they traveled the world together. They liked nothing better than to drive down an interesting-looking road.

Arnold was shy but warm, the smartest, funniest, quirkiest man we have known. He was a master of the worst case scenario; irreverent and unsentimental about life and about death. He treated his daughters like people and gave up precious sleep to spend time with us. Arnold loved romantic comedies and classical music and could get by in five languages. He loved the many German Shepherds that he and Edith adopted from the New Rochelle Humane Society. He was renowned for his Prisyadka, a Russian dance that he performed at weddings (a feat for anyone, let alone a man who stood 6’5”). He loved cooking and baking, especially in the company of his daughters and grandchildren, and then labeling and freezing for later. Arnold once said that, if he were to be reincarnated, he hoped it would be as a coyote, because coyotes live by their wits and can survive anywhere.

He told us recently that he had had a very good life. We will miss him terribly.

Donations in Arnold’s name can be made to the Humane Society of Westchester.