John David Smith, member of the Australian Mathematical Society and its Applied Mathematics Division for the last 22 years, died in his sleep on 6th August 1995. In June, John was diagnosed as having cancer. John came to Rockhampton in 1968 to join the then Queensland Institute of Technology (Capricornia) as a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics. After a period (1970-1973) as an industry consultant, he returned to Rockhampton as Head of the Department of Mathematics of the then Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education. After the change over to Central Queensland University, he was appointed as Professor of Computing in 1992 in addition to his headship of Mathematics.
He attended to his professional obligations until his last day.
He took a keen interest in activities of the Australian Mathematical Society and its Applied Mathematics Division and was chairman of the Queensland branch during the years 1985-1987. In addition to being a fellow of the Operational Research and member of the Australian Computer Society, he was a member of other professional organisations.
He was known for being kind hearted and helpful. He will be sadly missed by his colleagues and friends. John is survived by nine children and eight grandchildren.
R. Ayyalaraju
University of Central Queensland