With heavy hearts we announce the March 24th 2023 death of beloved UMass Amherst professor Charles Kay Smith, familiarly known as Kay. Born May 11, 1930, Mother's Day, on Boston's Joy Street, to Grace Kay Smith and Charles W. Smith, Kay grew up in Ft. Madison, Iowa, before enlisting in the army during the Korean War Conflict. Kay became a tank commander and was honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant. Kay attended Amherst College on the G. I. Bill and, following graduation, pursued graduate study in English at Brandeis University. As a distinguished professor in the UMass Amherst English Department for 40 years, Kay engaged thousands of students, teaching writing and English literature, along with neotenic evolution and epicurean living. Kay published in a broad range of disciplines from his essays "Darwin's Style," "The Domestication of Evolution" and "French Philosophy and English Interregnum Poetry" to his popular writing text Styles and Structures and prose poems in later life.
Kay and Helen Sootin were married for 30 years, living in Shutesbury, MA, with their beloved daughter Miranda and two generations of Greenland huskies. In 1984 Kay married Katherine M. Conway and together they raised their son Andrew Conway Smith in Leverett MA. Kay was predeceased by his parents, his brother Prescott G. Smith, and his former wife Helen Sootin Smith. He is survived by his much loved son Andrew and his wife of 37 years, Katherine M. Conway of Norton, MA. Kay is survived also by his cherished daughter Miranda Kay Smith Dow, her husband John F. Dow, Esq., and their triplets, Kay's grandchildren: Emil, Harrison, and Helen Dow of Concord, MA. Kay was a brilliant, creative polymath and vibrant raconteur. We will miss forever his beautiful smile, his gentle, kind disposition, and his indefatigable optimism and love for nature and all creatures under the sun, especially primates. A celebration of Kay's life will be held later this year. Donations in his memory may be made to the Umass Amherst Library, Amherst, MA, 01003, or the Sisters of St. Joseph, 577 Carew St. Springfield, MA, 01104.