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ROBERT B SMOCK PH D March 12, 2006
Professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, died of natural causes on February 25 in Plymouth, MI. He was 80 years old. Dr. Smock was a man of intelligence, imagination, and curiosity. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1925, to Harold and Betty (Batesole) Smock. In his personal writings, with the trained mind of a sociologist, he referred to himself as "a repository of a revelation of life of middle-class, middle-American men in the late 20th century." Yet his life was anything but middling. Before going into academia, Dr. Smock was a Methodist minister in Harmon, Illinois. His interest in social work and social studies, however, led him back to school and research. He earned his bachelor's degree from Adrian College in 1946. He worked as a social worker and research assistant before receiving his master's degree in 1953 and his doctorate in sociology in 1962 from Wayne State University. While working on his Ph.D. at Wayne State University, he took a special interest in traffic patterns, and was associate director of the Detroit Area Traffic Study, where he played a major role in planning highway development in the Detroit area. (This is why any of his children can explain how traffic bottlenecks for no apparent reason.) Dr. Smock then moved on to the UM-Dearborn as assistant professor of sociology and director of the campus Center for Urban Studies in 1963. He taught and held senior administrative positions at the University for 27 years. He helped develop UM-Dearborn's sociology curriculum and taught a wide variety of courses in human ecology and demography, American social classes, principles of sociology, comparative religions, and personality and society. He was promoted to associate professor in 1965 and to professor in 1968. Dr. Smock's research focused on demography, human ecology and urban sociology, and his publications included a monthly newsletter titled "Metro Motown", as well as a textbook on human ecology. In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Smock held major administrative positions at UM-Dearborn as the campus made the transition during the late 1960s and early 1970s from a two-year "senior college" enrolling a few hundred students to a comprehensive university enrolling thousands. "He was charged with the task of overseeing the academic development of the campus as it began this expansion," the Regents noted. He also served as chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences, and at the time of his retirement in 1990 he was acting director of the Office of Institutional Research. Dr. Smock is survived by his wife, Frances Wilson Villeneuve, whom he met as an undergraduate at Adrian College and married 42 years later. He is also survived by his brother Dick, of Anacortes, Washington; two children from his first marriage, David, of Anacortes, and Mardi Black, of Northport; two children from his second marriage, John, of New York City, and Adam, of Berkley; step-daughter Trisha Stock, of Plymouth; nine grandchildren, Brett, Jacob, Ambie, Lee, Nick, Evelyn, Talia, Dillon, and Devin; and three great grandchildren, Max, Malcom, and Hogan. Dr. Smock was preceded in death by his daughter Sarbeth, who died in 1997. A lover of music, Dr. Smock would sing to Fran a lyric from "I'll Remember You", by Johnny Mercer: "When my life is through/And the angels ask me to recall/the thrill of them all/then I shall tell them I remember you." He is much loved and will not soon be forgotten. Donations in his memory may be made to the Alzheimer's Association or the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan (PIRGIM). The family invites you to share thoughts, memories and stories at their "On-Line Guest Book" at www.smockfiles.com/rbs, where information on a June memorial service will be announced.


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