2 October 2019

St. Louis – The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, will convene a special session of the court en banc in memory of the late Judge Gerald M. Smith at 3 p.m. Tuesday, October 8, 2019, at the Old Post Office, 815 Olive Street, St. Louis, Missouri. Smith died March 4, 2019. He served as judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, from 1971 until his retirement in 1997. 

Judge Thea Sherry and attorneys Ann Buckley and Julia Todd are the invited speakers.

Smith was educated at the University of Missouri-Columbia, from which he received a bachelor of journalism degree, and at the University of Michigan School of Law, from which he obtained his juris doctorate degree and earned the distinction of Order of the Coif. Upon graduation, he served as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court and an assistant U.S. attorney before practicing law in St. Louis at two law firms. Governor Warren Hearnes appointed him to the Missouri Court of Appeals in 1971. He served as the court's chief judge from 1975 to 1977.

Smith was married to Joanna Matthes in 1957 and had two children; following her death, he was married to the former clerk of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Deirdre Ahr, in 1992. After retirement, he moved from St. Louis to South Carolina. He is survived by a son, Andrew G. Smith; a sister, Elizabeth Carol Smith McClain; four grandchildren; and number of great-grandchildren. 


Contact: Laura Roy, clerk of the court
Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District
(314) 539-4300