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Photo courtesy of MDIFW LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD -- George Smith, center, is pictured with MDIFW Commissioner Judy Camuso and MDIFW Deputy Commissioner Tim Peabody after being honored with a department Lifetime Achievement Award on Sept. 7. Smith, who has a camp at Nesowadnehunk Lake on the edge of Baxter State Park, has been executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine for 18 years, host of the TV show “Wildfire,” a 30-year columnist for the Kennebec Journal and outdoor blogger for the Bangor Daily News.
Photo courtesy of MDIFW LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD -- George Smith, center, is pictured with MDIFW Commissioner Judy Camuso and MDIFW Deputy Commissioner Tim Peabody after being honored with a department Lifetime Achievement Award on Sept. 7. Smith, who has a camp at Nesowadnehunk Lake on the edge of Baxter State Park, has been executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine for 18 years, host of the TV show “Wildfire,” a 30-year columnist for the Kennebec Journal and outdoor blogger for the Bangor Daily News.

Maine sportsman George Smith dies after 4-year ALS battle

Contributed •February 13, 2021

By Rosemary Lausier, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated.

Maine sportsman and writer George Smith died at age 72 Friday after a 4-year battle with ALS. 

Smith was a Winthrop native and lived in Mount Vernon for more than 40 years. Perhaps best known as the former executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, he was diagnosed with ALS — also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease — in 2017 and continued his career as a writer afterward.

“I am physically unable to hunt and fish, but friends still take me with them. I am not complaining because I enjoy a lifetime of great memories of hunting and fishing adventures,” Smith said in 2018 about adjusting to his diagnosis. “I’ve heard from people from Alaska to Italy. And I feel blessed to have so many friends who are eager to help us.”

Smith stepped down at the end of 2010 from the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. A graduate of University of Maine in Orono, he was an outdoor contributor for the Bangor Daily News and wrote weekly editorial-page and travel columns in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.

“As the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine for nearly two decades, George built a proud and enduring legacy of conservation. Current and future generations of outdoor recreationalists will be forever grateful for George’s advocacy,” Sen. Susan Collins said. 

Islandport Press published a book of Smith’s favorite columns, “A Life Lived Outdoors” in 2014. In 2016, Down East Books published a book, “Maine Sporting Camps,” and Islandport Press published a travel book co-written with Smith’s wife, Linda, called, “Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.

“An avid sportsman, a prolific writer, and a good-natured friend to all, George Smith was the very embodiment of the character of Maine: strong but kind, independent but compassionate, wise but humble,” Gov. Janet Mills said of his passing. 

“We will miss his humor, his caring, his written words, his stories, and his humanity. George was a man who loved and knew Maine, with every bone in his body and every breath of life,” said Pete Didisheim, advocacy director of Natural Resources Council of Maine. 

He is survived by his wife, his children and grandchildren, his brother Gordon and sister Edie.

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