Bo Smith's Website

Profile

My email: bosmith1300@gmail.com

Education
1959-1963

BA Geological Sciences '1963
50+ Graduate Hours

Military Service

1963-1991

Educator

1991-2007

Bo's Mine Tours and
Educational Services

2007-2020

"Any man may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile,

I think he can respond with a great deal of pride and satisfaction ....... I served in the U.S. Navy "

John F. Kennedy

For more Details about my Navy and Education Career click on My Personal Page

My Active Websites


Bo's Mine Tours Consulting Updated: July 9th, 2023	Native American Mica Mining Research Project Updated February 19th, 2018	Protein Crystals in Space Updated August 1st, 2008

Bo's Memoir

(Last Updated June 3rd, 2025)

I got this image on Facebook of poster advertised by smileup.shop.com

I have been working on this memoir for about five years now. What began as an attempt to document my life for my family has morphed into not only a discussion of my childhood and my college experience at Cornell but also a detailed account of my Navy career and description of my squadrons, staffs and ships during the period of time that I was assigned to them.

Of particular interest to some of my readers has been the chapters describing my three tours flying from aircraft carriers over south and north Vietnam, my US Air Fore exchange tour flying the F-105 Thunderchief, my tour at the Royal Air Force Staff College in Bracknell, England, and the three chapters documenting my two years as the Captain of the USS Austin LPD-4.

I hope to complete the final chapter of my Navy career spent as the Operations and Plans Officer at COMFAIRWESTPAC in Atsugi, Japan soon.

If I survive that and am still vertical and have sufficient memory left to continue on, I may attempt to document some of the high points of my second career as an educator and my third carrier with Bo' Mine Tours.

Bo's Memoir Website

My Wife Diana

August 16, 1941 - May 31, 2025

Many people have described Diana as the nicest most considerate person they had ever met!

A Celebration of Life memorial service/reception was held
on Friday, June 27th from 1:00-5:00pm in a private room at
Maggiano's Italian Restaurant, Town Center
10367 Midtown Parkway,
Jacksonville, Florida 32246

RETCAPTS (Retired Captains Group)

RETCAPTS is a local social group which meets once a month for lunch. Membership in this group is extended to retired Navy Captains most whom have had a major command like command of an air wing or ship. Exceptions are granted on a case by case basis such as for POWs. We normally start with a libation of some kind followed by lunch at a local eatery. Conversation topics are varied; sea stories, military status discussions, politics, medical topics; nothing is off limits.

Members at our October 13th, 2021 get together at Mavis Seafood Restraurant

My VALION VA-15 Circa 1966/1967 Dinner at Caps
June 19th, 2020

My first squadron VA-15, had two back to back deployments Dixie and Yankee Stations off the coast of Vietnam in 1966 and 1967. I have detailed descriptions of those deployments in 'My Memoir'. We haven't had any reunions since then. As the years have gone by we have lost about half of our squadron members or their wives. Three members have passed since this picture was taken in 2020; Jerry "Possum" Terrell on the left end, his wife Sarah on the left end and Dave Parsons next to me. As it is getting increasingly difficult for some of us to travel, we are looking at possibly getting together in the future by Zoom.

Cody and Foo (Chinese Crested Puff Balls)

Gemini and Ruby

Barbara and her Shia Tzu in 2014

My sister Barbara is two years younger than me. She spent her life living and working in New Jersey. Barbara recently left her home for many years in a community for seniors in Tom River in southern New Jersey and currently lives in an apartment in Lincroft, which is in northern New Jersey about ten minutes from her daughter Melissa and her husband David. Barbara has a cat or two and a wonderful Shia Tzu, Nicki who is a brother of my recently departed Shia Tzu, King Tut.

What's all this about Northern and Southern New Jersey, you ask?

I was born in Orange, New Jersey which is near Newark (northern), lived my high school years in Ridgewood (northern), and spent a lot of time in our family vacation house in Normandy Beach (I think northern!) without being aware that there was a difference. I recently learned that there was a movement in the late 1700s to divide the state into east and west New Jersey; east favoring New York city and its politics, and west favoring Philadelphia as it's cornerstone. So, it is still true today! If you live on southern New Jersey you cheer for the Philadelphia Eagles, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Philadelphia Phillies. If you live in northern New Jersey, you are fans of the Giants or Jets, the Rangers or Islanders, and the Yankees or Mets. My daughter Jessica and her husband Tom live at Barenegat Light on Long Beach Island and are avid Philadelphia sports fans.

My Five Daughters

left to right: Heather, Laura, Jessica, Lindsay, Stacy (2025)
At Diana's"Celebration of Life' reception

Daughter's and Grandchildren's Birthdays

Daughters (5)


Heather Smith (January 3rd, 1964)	Laura Smith (December 1st, 1965)	Stacy Smith Gant (July 19th, 1971)	Jessica Gail Scangarello (January 31st, 1983)	Lindsay Dean Harper (July 20th, 1985)

Grandchildren (10)

Austin Wright (July 12th, 1996) Hadden Wright (August 5th, 1998) Heather and David's sons	Eliza Eliza Emerson Voorhjies-19 (December 12th, 2006) Laura and Steve's daughter	Oliver Gant- 16 (June 30th, 2009) Stacy and Jed's son	Eleanor (Nora) Lewis Gant-12 (January 25th, 2013) Stacy and Jed's daughter
Leighton Marie Scangarello- 12 February 11th, 2013 Jessica and Tom's daughter	Carly Gail Scangarello- 9 March 3rd, 2016 Jessica and Tom's daughter	Alex Scangarello- 8 January 14th, 2017 Jessica and Tom's daughter	Thomas Dean Scangarello- almost 3 Born November 9th, 2022 Jessica and Tom's son
	Curran Harper- 13 March 2nd, 2012 Lindsay and Brett's son	Liv Harper- 12 in October October 9th, 2013 Lindsay and Brett's daughter

Relatively Recent Family Pictures


Hadden in 2019 Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science at UCLA	Hadden (left) and Austin in 2005 Budding Geologists	Austin in 2025 PhD in Machine Learning at Georgia Tech

Hadden, left (age 7); Austin right (age 9)
I gave them mining hammers for Christmas to encourage then to learn about Geology.
Heather gave them the hammers even though she was concerned about the safety of this whole idea!

The Arrival of Thomas Dean Scangarelllo

Jessica with Thomas

Thomas Dean Scangarello

Tom with Thomas

Alex, Thomas, Carly, Leighton

Fishing with the Scangarellos

Tom with prized Stripper
Leighton (left) and Carly (right)

Fishing with Tom and Jessica
in Barnegat Bay
I'm holding Jessica's catch

Doormat Flounders in 2021
with Carly (left) and Leighton (right)

Pictures of my daughter Laura, Steve, and Eliza Voorheis
Summer 2020 Vacation

My daughter Laura plans a summer vacation trip every summer.


This is Eliza (soon to be in 8th grade), Laura, and Steve on one of their first stops which was to camp at Rocky Mountain State Park in Colorado. Beautiful mountain landscape!	One of the places they visited next was Arches National Park in Utah. Even though I've spent a lot of time in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, I have never been able to visit Utah on the ground. Spectacular topography.

This is Eliza at Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick, Canada on July 2019 at age 13. She will be 18 next December.

Picture of my daughter Stacy, Jed, Oliver, and Nora Gant
July 25th, 2020

My daughter Stacy, her husband Jed, and my grandchildren Oliver and Nora took a short break from their home in Raleigh and
spent some time enjoying a beautiful cabin and the spectacular views from the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.
(Perhaps the trip was to celebrate Stacy's birthday- July 19th)


Oliver, Nora and me looking at my cabochons (One of my favorite pictures)	Nora (at age 6) and Oliver (at age 10) in the spring of 2019 . Oliver will be 15 June 30th, 2024 Nora was 11 on January 25th, 2024

Classic Pictures

Curran and Liv in Nevada

Lindsay and Jessica in 2018

which thinks nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is wiling to fight,
nothing that is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free
unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

2021 Left to Right: Ella (Austin's girlfriend), Austin, Hadden, David, Heather	My eldest daughter Heather is a senior lecturer and statistical consultant at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. CA. Her husband, David is a retired biostatistician and is an avid pickle ball player. Their oldest son, Austin (left center) graduated from Cal Berkeley with a a dual physics and computer science major, completed a one year Computer Science Master's Degree program ((machine learning) at Imperial College London, and recently received his PhD program in Machine Learning at Georgia Tech. Austin has accepted a tenure track research/teahing position at Cl Poly. Hadden (right center) completed his Bachelor's degree at UCLA in the Honors Program with a Math/Economics major with a concentration in computing and a minor in Statistics. He is in the process of moving to New York City for a oib in Manhattan.
December 2019	My "second" daughter Laura is an experienced television news producer who has her PhD in Journalism from the University of Texas. Laura is the "Hearst Lecturer of Journalism" for the College of Journalism at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. Her husband, Steve is a musician and private contractor. Their beautiful and talented daughter, Eliza recently graduated from high school and will be 19 in December. She is currently working and living at home (paying rent) and is considering her future plans!
2021	My middle daughter, Stacy is the Director of Instructional Support Services at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Her group helps professors use instructional technology. Her husband, Jed, is a Media Strategist at Myriad Media, a great company in downtown Raleigh. They have two wonderful children; Oliver is 16 and Nora (Eleanor) is 12. They just completed a great trip to Jacksonville and and they left with lots of momentos of their grandfather. I look forward to seeing them more often. Their dog, Penny, is a yellow lab mix.
July 2019	This is a picture was taken of my fourth daughter Jessica, her husband Tom and their daughters Leighton, Carly, and Alex at "The Farm". They have a second home and a business on Long Beach Island on "the shore" in New Jersey. Tom and Jessica own a landscaping business on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. Tom manages the operations of the business while Jessica oversees the office management side. Tom decided to buy some land to use to process yard trash from the business. This land has been redeveloped into a farm with four horses and is a wedding venue. Tom graduated from Flagler College in St Augustine. Jessica earned her BA in Business Management at the University of North Florida while pursuing her first career as principal soloist at the Florida Ballet in Jacksonville. Their daughter Leighton will be 9 on February 11th. Their second daughter, Carly Gail Scangarello will be 6 on March 3rd. And, their third daughter, Alex Elizabeth Scangarello was 4 on December 14th, 2019. Their latest arrival Thomas Dean Scangarello was born on Novemver, 2022 and is pictured above. Pictured on the left at "the farm" is Tom, Leighton, Jessica, Alex, and Carly (with the jars of honey)!
January, 2020. Yosemite National Park	This is a picture of my fifth and beautiful daughter Lindsay, her husband, Brett and their two children Curran and Liv. Brett is a traveling trauma nurse. They move about every 6 months. Over the past few years they have lived in San Jose and near Nevada City, California, two trips to Oahu, Hawaii, Nevada near Lake Tahoe, and Anchorage, Alaska. Everyone in the family enjoys outdoor activities so have been surfing in Hawaii, hiking in Nevada, hiking and snow boarding in Alaska My daughter, Lindsay has been homeschooling the kids as they travel around. They recently surprised us by moving back to Jacksonville. Brett has a job at Memorial Hospital. They live about a mile from us.The have joined The Queen's Harbour Golf Club. Curran has become quite a talented golfer winning a local tournament for his age group with a high 70 score. Currran was 12 this March; Liv was 10 last October.