Tom Smith Jr., veteran who worked at Long Island utility companies, dies at 65

For Cedarhurst’s Tom Smith Jr., hockey was life. A Rangers season-ticket holder who nonetheless favored the Boston Bruins due to childhood hero Bobby Orr, he introduced his son to the sport as early as age 5 — and with his wife traveled far and wide to attend their boy's games.

On Feb. 21, Smith and his wife, Annmarie, were cheering on their son, Tom III, a defenseman for the Farmingdale State College Rams at the American Collegiate Hockey Association Men’s Division 2 Northeast Regionals in Simsbury, Connecticut. In thrilling overtime, the Rams beat the Bentley University Falcons 5-4. And as Tom Smith Jr. was leaving the International Skating Center of Connecticut, he suffered a fatal heart attack.

"He got to see his son win," Annmarie Smith said, recalling how her husband "wasn't feeling well toward the end of the game. So he sat outside for a while and I pulled the car up to the front." Tom Smith by then had stepped back into the arena’s vestibule, "and as he started to walk out, he stopped. I got out of the car, went inside and he had collapsed."

She yelled for medical attention and an ambulance and the rink’s medics arrived almost immediately to administer CPR, she said.

"They had a defibrillator, but unfortunately it was too late. They did rush him to the hospital," where he was pronounced dead. He was 65.

"If you rated a man’s wealth by his friends, he'd be a millionaire," said Jamie Rebman, of Salisbury, Maryland, formerly of Baldwin, who knew "Smitty" since they were teens. Calling him "very outgoing" and "a presence in the room," he joked that Smith "could walk into any place on Long Island and find somebody he knows."

Those people might be pals from childhood or from vintage car circles — he owned a 1965 Ford Ranchero and a 1969 Mercury Cougar — or fellow sports memorabilia collectors or brothers from his 1980s service with the Marine Corps.

"He loved hanging out with his friends and talking about his friends," Rebman said.

Thomas William Smith Jr. was born Nov. 1, 1960, in Queens, the eldest of three sons of a blue-collar father, Thomas William Smith Sr., and mother, Tina Barbara Tripodo Smith, a nurse. Raised in Rockville Centre and Oceanside, he graduated from Oceanside High School in 1978.

Following a series of odd jobs, he enlisted in the Marines in 1982, rising to the rank of lance corporal. Serving through 1986 in Marine Composite Helicopter Squadron 261, 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, he saw action as a helicopter gunner with Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada.

His unit — the "Raging Bulls" — transitioned to Beirut from November 1983 to February 1984. There he participated in peacekeeping and evacuation in the wake of the October 1983 truck bombing of a Marine compound that killed 220 Marines and 21 others. The unit was awarded a Navy Unit Commendation in 1984.

Following his discharge, Smith worked in the maintenance division of the Grumman aerospace corporation in Bethpage until about 1989, said his wife, the former Annmarie Rizzo, whom he married on Sept. 9, 2000. Following Grumman, he worked for LILCO and its successors, KeySpan and National Grid, until retiring in 2022.

Throughout his life he indulged his love of sports, for years taking an annual pilgrimage with friends to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to see home games of his favorite NFL team, the Packers. He was active in the Long Island branch of the Pharoahs Car Club and of veterans' organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. For some years, "He drove the Cougar in the Memorial Day Parade here in the Five Towns," his wife said.

"He was working on staying healthy," Rebman said. "He was looking to the future. He was buying more collectible stuff and telling me about the work he would do with his cars this year."

In addition to his wife and son, Thomas William Smith III, of Cedarhurst, he is survived by brothers Kenneth and Peter, both of Oceanside.

Following visitation at Towers Funeral Home in Oceanside on March 3, he was cremated privately. Donations may be made to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation or to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.