The Rev. John Ferris “Jack” Smith, well known on the Outer Cape as a longtime leader of the Episcopal Chapel of St. James the Fisherman, died in his sleep at home in Wellfleet on Oct. 26, 2021. He was 86 years old.
After retiring and moving to Wellfleet in 2000, Jack fully embraced his new community. He enjoyed being a good neighbor and regular greeter of anyone he happened to pass. He and his standard poodle, Jane Austen, often sat on a bench on Main Street, Jack offering conversation and Jane a head to pet. Jack’s dogs, from his first — the wonderful dachshund Bismark — to his standard poodles Gandalf, Louie, Folly, and Jane, were constant companions.
Together with his longtime friend the Rev. Mac Gatch, Jack served as a priest-in-charge of the St. James summer chapel. He served on the Wellfleet Historical Commission and, with others, initiated the restoration of Hamblen Park at the southern end of Uncle Tim’s Bridge. He was also a significant donor to the Common Table food bank in Wellfleet.
Jack was born on Nov. 20, 1934 in Flint, Mich., attended Flint public schools, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1956, and received a master’s degree from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge in 1959. His parents, Joseph and Agnes “Daisy” Ferris Smith, had emigrated from England and Northern Ireland, respectively, and they bequeathed to him a large supply of the Irish preference for wit over disappointment.
Jack was a wickedly gifted mimic and a talented musician. He played clarinet throughout his life, starting in the Flint Central High School marching band and continuing in Wellfleet as a member of the Lower Cape Concert Band, the Cape Community Orchestra, and several chamber groups. He especially enjoyed playing on the band’s float in the Fourth of July parade in Wellfleet.
Jack played important roles in the larger world before settling full-time in Wellfleet. The defining feature of his life was an unquenched hunger for justice. During the 1960s and ’70s, he was a leader in the civil rights movement, a committed antiwar activist, and a dedicated feminist. As a chaplain at Boston University, he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On the first anniversary of King’s assassination, members of a Black student organization disrupted a university ceremony by walking out to protest ongoing structures of racism, and Jack joined them, one of the few white people who did.
When acts of arson, false fire alarms, and bomb scares brought B.U. to a standstill, Jack rallied the students in a huge demonstration of resistance that rescued the spirit of the university. He also founded and served on the board of the Boston Clergyman’s Consultation Service on Problem Pregnancy, helping women to access safe abortions when the practice was still illegal.
While serving as Episcopal chaplain at Boston University from 1961 to 1978, he pioneered a new way of practicing the ministry, inspiring many peers and encouraging a legion of young people across several generations who found it possible to believe in God because of the way he did.
In a frightening time, Jack and his then-wife Gracie turned their dining room into a sanctuary, open to everybody. This affirmation of life was known to all around B.U. simply as “Prescott Street,” home to a new, if decidedly secular, spin to the breaking of bread, passing of wine, and eating of hot dogs. Some came to Prescott Street for the wine, others for the good company and shared political passions. But many eyes were opened to a manifestation of the sacred, even if few would use that word to describe the effervescence with which everyone always left the Smith house.
In 1978, Jack became chaplain and teacher of religion and English at the Groton School. At this famous center of privilege, Jack was, both by his life story and by his conscience, an icon of democratic equality for two decades. He coached cross country and became a member of the governing board of the National Association of Episcopal Schools before retiring in 2000. Many of his students at Groton became lifelong friends.
His first book, The Bush Still Burns, was published in 1978. He published two additional books after retirement, Raising a Good Kid and Living Forward, as well as two editions of A Cycle of Prayer for Episcopal Schools.
Year in and year out, Jack preached, in his irresistibly irreverent way, the simple message that there is no God apart from justice and peace and love. A life that had begun in Flint and flourished in Boston and Groton came powerfully into its own when Jack Smith came home to Wellfleet.
“Jack had a talent for learning about people quickly, insightfully, and sympathetically,” wrote Mac Gatch in a tribute to his old friend. “He preached, often with anecdotes from his life as a teacher, with wit and depth of insight. He read Scripture with remarkable perceptiveness, and he had no room for religious cant or theological slovenliness.”
He always had time to engage with and support the young people of Wellfleet. Silas Watkins recalled how Jack had befriended him when he was a sophomore in high school. Jack was brilliant in the way he simply wanted to get know others. He was, Watkins said, “someone who just wanted to talk with and know you and wanted nothing in exchange.”
Like a parent, Watkins said, Jack seemed to live a little vicariously through the young people he befriended. He recently invited a group of his young friends over for a dinner. The young people did not know each other, but Jack managed to communicate to each of them how unique they were individually and as a group. “He just thought we were really neat,” said Watkins.
His happiest times were when his daughters and their families came to visit.
He is survived by two daughters, Sarah Smith of Framingham and Priscilla Smith of Brooklyn, N.Y.; by Priscilla’s wife, Carol Henderson; by four grandchildren, Sam Smith-Boyle, Lucy Henderson Smith, Vanessa Smith-Boyle, and Peter Henderson Smith; and by Cilla’s standard poodle, Tano, who was brought into the Smith family at Jack’s urging. He is also survived by his former wife, Mary Grace Smith of Wellfleet, with whom he maintained a friendship until his death.
A memorial service will be scheduled at St. James the Fisherman in the late spring or early summer of 2022.
