August 25, 2010

Hugh G. Goldsmith, engineer, dead at 83

Hugh Gordon Goldsmith, founder of Hugh G. Goldsmith and Associates civil engineering and land surveying firm, died Sunday of complications from his seven-year battle with mesothelioma, his family said in a prepared statement.

Goldsmith was 83.

A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Holy Family Catholic Church in Kirkland.

He founded Hugh G. Goldsmith and Associates in Seattle in 1958. The owner of the engineering firm where he worked became ill and closed the business, letting Goldsmith branch off the civil engineering and land surveying department. As head of the survey department, Goldsmith had led that engineering firm into new territory: subdivision of land for homebuilders.

Seattle and King County were embarking on comprehensive land use and metropolitan sewer plans for the Eastside. His family said Goldsmith saw the potential and his firm became known for master planning and engineering large-scale development.

The firm worked on Klahanie, Sahalee Country Club, McCormick Woods, Bear Creek Country Club, Redmond Ridge, Fairwood, The Golf Club at Newcastle and Aldarra Golf Club.

Today the Bellevue-based firm is called Goldsmith, and is run by the second generation of the family. The chief executive officer is Keith Goldsmith, one of Hugh Goldsmith's sons. The firm provides engineering, land surveying and land development consulting.

Brian R. Goldsmith said his father's greatest contribution to the field came in the 1950s when he worked through the Land Surveyors Association of Washington to get a law passed that only professional land surveyors can subdivide land. “Before that the subdivision of land was not regulated efficiently,” said Goldsmith, who is vice president of operations for the firm.

Hugh Goldsmith was born in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 9, 1926. He spent his childhood in Greenville, S.C., and graduated from Greenville High School in 1943. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1945 and served until 1948.

After his discharge he moved to Seattle, and graduated from Seattle University with a civil engineering degree in 1952. He met his future wife, Skitty, during this period and the family moved to Kirkland in 1963.

Goldsmith is survived by his mother-in-law: Dorothy F. Hansberry of Kirkland; his brother: James D. Goldsmith of Seattle; and his sisters: Mary Jane Blanton Shaffer of Easley, S.C., Carolyn (Howard) Chapman of Greenville, S.C., Margaret (Ron) Stewart of Tacoma, and their families.

He is also survived by seven of his nine children and their families: Jill (Bob) Routt, Brian (Kathleen), Keith (Jennifer), Nancy Goldsmith (Steve Suelzle), Thomas, Janet (Kevin) Cleary, William; and daughter-in-law Beverly Goldsmith; all of Kirkland.

He was preceded in death by Skitty, his wife of 58 years.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to: Holy Family School in Kirkland, St. Mary's Church of Greenville, S.C., or the Annajean and Dorothy Goldsmith Memorial Scholarship Fund at Holy Names Academy in Seattle.