Clarence "Clancy" Monnett Smith Jr.

CLARENCE “CLANCY” MONNETT SMITH married the love of his life, Mary Louise Wisbroecker, of Eau Claire, WI on December 5, 1959.  Mary and Clancy lived a life of friendship, travel, study, humor and card games with a wide circle of friends. Favorite pastimes included bridge parties, picnics, hikes, and bike rides, with adventurous stays along the Minnesota North Shore and Green Valley, AZ where they lived half the year.

Clancy became interested in genealogy after his dad’s death in 1971 and went on to spend 50 years researching the family tree to write a series of self-published books that take up a yard of bookshelf space. The books were meticulously researched using sources as varied as microfilm, family records, DNA, old plat maps, Minnesota Historical Society archives, and travel to far-flung graveyards during family vacations, plus a few trips to Europe to peruse church records. Through this work he found family links to a carnival knife thrower, Admiral Lord Nelson, Queen Elizabeth, and Claude Monet. This task consumed most of his free time.

Clancy was also interested in a wide array of subjects from NASA and astronomy to American and world history and art, photography, culture, design, and architecture. Growing up on a farm, he had a strong affinity for growing things and was particularly proud of his roses. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army and learned to fly small planes as a civilian.

He placed a high value on education, civic participation, and family. In his younger days he was a frequent volunteer and chairman of local political campaigns. He was active in the Minneapolis Citizens League and Sierra Club and served on the Boards of the Minnesota Conservatory of Performing Arts and St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, MN. An avid reader and viewer of public television he also listened to classical music all day long and he and Mary were season ticket holders and supporters for decades of the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Tucson Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Guthrie Theater. He loved Mozart.

Clancy was born in Des Moines, Iowa on September 25, 1932. He attended Cornell College in Mount Vernon, IA and Iowa State College in Ames, IA. After working as an architectural intern in Des Moines, he switched to City Planning and went on to get his Masters in City Planning from the University of Wisconsin. He founded the firm Amenity One, Inc. in St. Paul, MN to provide services to small cities in the Upper Midwest, from Superior, Wisconsin to Worthington, MN. He designed parks and trails and public buildings across the Midwest, including Vermillion Falls Park in Hastings, MN. He employed his daughter in pre-computer days to help make land use maps, driving up and down streets as she took notes on how many mailboxes were on each house.

He passed away on March 11, 2023, and is preceded in death by his parents, Clarence Washington Smith Sr. (1899-1971) and Mina Zeruah Monnett Smith, (1901-1984) his loving sister Betty Jean Douthett, brothers-in-law Marshall Douthett and Jack Brunton and sister-in-law Doris (Wisbroecker) Tufte. He is survived by his wife Mary Louise Smith, daughter Sheila Marie Smith, son-in-law Perry McGowan, brother-in-law Obert Tufte and many nieces and nephews, as well as a son and two grandchildren.

Interment will be at Fort Snelling in the Spring. Memorials in lieu of flowers are requested to go to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.