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April 4, 2010

William J. Smith, 64, of Bear Creek Boulevard (Boulevard Manor), Plains Township, passed away into eternal peace on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010, at Mercy Hospital, Scranton, after years of ill health.
He was the son of the late Walter L. Smith and Pauline L. (Kishbaugh) Smith, of Bilby Hill Road, Shickshinny. He was educated in several “One Room Schoolhouses” located in Koonsville, Harveyville, Reyburn and Muhlenburg. He attended Garrison School in Shickshinny and graduated from Northwest Area High School, Class of 1965. In high school, Bill was involved in football and wrestling teams as well as the Future Farmers of America.
Upon graduation, he immediately enlisted into the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War and served 3-1/2 years. He served in the transportation filed as a crew chief on the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter aircraft. He participated as a boxer and won several Golden Gloves awards.
After an honorable discharge, he enlisted into the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, where he served with Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion 109th Infantry, Plymouth, for two years. During that time, he attended West Side Vocational-Technical School evening classes and became a residential electrician working in various towns. He was previously employed by the following: Berwick Fabricating Forge, Automobile Transport, Blue Coal Company, ABC Supply Company, T. Schwartz Construction Company, Ray Farthing & Son Excavating and Bloomsburg Metal.
He served as a bartender at the former Parsons Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6227 and at Goldens Bar, Boulevard Manor. He was a member of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church until its merger.
Besides his parents, he was preceded in death by his godparents, the late Michael and Eunice Krupinski, of West Wyoming.
Bill was known to his friends as “The Boulevard Mayor” and “Wild Willie.” Bill’s best qualities were that no one could read a map better than Bill. He loved to garden, farm, hunt, fish, collect coins, read military history and collect his aluminum cans. He was always repairing something for someone. He was a great cook, loved to smoke, loved the outdoors and fresh air.
William and his wife, the former Natalia R. Bacewicz, of Plains Township, would have celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary in June. He is also survived by his son, Damian-Jeffrey, of Plains Township; the family pet “Apache”; brother, Kenneth Smith, of Nashville, Ind.; and sister, Terry Lee Hamilton, Berwick; and numerous aunts; uncles; cousins; nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at 8:30 a.m. Thursday from the Nat & Gawlas Funeral Home, 89 Park Ave., Wilkes-Barre, with a Mass of Christian Burial to follow at 9 a.m. in St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, 666 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre. Full Military Honors will be conducted by members of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Interment will be in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, Annville, Pa.
Friends may call today from 5 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.
In lieu of Floral Tribute, those wishing can make a memorial contribution in “Bill’s Memory” to either USO of Georgia Inc., Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, PO BOX 20963, Atlanta, GA 30320, Angel Flight of the Mid-Atlantic, 4620 Haygood Road, Suite 1, Virginia Beach, VA 23455, or to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38108.