Jennifer Karen Smith's Obituary
Jennifer Karen Smith, age 59, passed away peacefully with her family by her side on Thursday, September 8, 2022, after a yearlong battle with cancer. The skies darkened and it rained almost continuously for three days as the Earth mourned her passing.
She was born September 24, 1962, in Ames, Iowa to Ralph Thomas Schneider and Verna Lee Schneider, who were both attending Iowa State University. In August 1969, she moved with her parents, and recently born sister, Rebecca Anne Schneider, to Eleva Wisconsin where her father began his professorship in English at The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She graduated from Eleva-Strum Central High School in 1980.
Jennifer’s intelligence, work ethic, and high standards, plus organizational and leadership skills propelled her to the highest levels in two different careers. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 1984, she began her career in Costume Technology as a stitcher at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. She then built costumes for Prince at his PRN Productions Studios, also in Minneapolis, MN. Next, she attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Technical Theatre/Theatre Design and Technology in 1990. This was her last steppingstone to Gainesville. That same year she was hired by The University of Florida as an Assistant Professor teaching Costume Construction Technology and supervising the costume building for all UF’s theatre productions. After many years she was promoted to Associate Professor and awarded tenure. During this time, online courses were becoming more prolific. This was the beginning of her second career. She was charged with creating an online version of one of her courses, where she learned how to create online courses and made friends with the good people in the department that evolved into UFOnline. About a couple of years after attaining tenure, she resigned from UF to take a position on the board of PatternMaker Software, where she did programming and quality control. And now here’s the amazing part of her story. One day, when she was on the UF campus, she, by chance, ran into one of her friends at UFOnline. They informed her of an opening there for an Instructional Designer. She applied and was hired. Her aforementioned personal qualities led to promotion after promotion up to her current position as the Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence for The University of Florida.
In her personal life, Jennifer has been a dedicated practitioner of Ashtanga Yoga for many years. She was an avid bicyclist and could be found every Saturday and Sunday riding the Hawthorne trail. For a number of years Jennifer would load her bike into the back of her Prius every June and drive up to Pennsylvania and Maryland to ride The Great Allegheny Passage and The C&O Canal Towpath. She enjoyed gardening and had a little garden out in the West 40 that produced many delicious vegetables for the dinner table. More recently, Jennifer got into raising monarch butterflies. She had dozens of milkweed plants in pots and when a chrysalis appeared on a milkweed plant, it would be moved to a special enclosure to keep it safe until the butterfly emerged. Afterwards, Jennifer opened the enclosure and set it free.
Jennifer is survived by her husband, Will Smith; her parents, Ralph and Verna Schneider of Eleva, WI; her sister, Rebecca Schneider of Malden, MA; her uncle, Alan Nitteberg of Pleasanton, CA; her uncle, Glen Schneider and wife Marilyn of Johnstown, NY; her cousin Barbara Stafford of Swampscott, MA; her cousin Steven Schneider of Tampa, FL; her many friends at The University of Florida and the Theatre Community across the country; and Will and Jennifer’s two precious kittens, Amy & Misty, recently adopted from the Humane Society.
Speaking of which, in lieu of flowers, please donate in Jennifer’s name to the Humane Society of North Central Florida – 4205 NW 6th St Gainesville, FL 32609 – humanesocietyncfl.org - 352.373.5855.
Graveside Funeral Services will be held on Friday, September 16, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. at the Micanopy Historic Cemetery across the street from 402 West Smith Avenue, Micanopy, FL 32667.
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