Dr. John Richard Smith Jr., whose care for several generations of many Queen Anne's County families made him a local institution, died of a heart attack Thursday after being stricken in his Centreville office. He was 71.
For many of his nearly 35 years of practice, Dr. Smith was the county's only physician. He was remembered yesterday as a man who saw patients without appointments and made occasional house calls. He also served many years as the county's medical examiner, a job he gave up a year ago.
County Administrator Robert Sallitt said that seeing 15 people waiting outside Dr. Smith's office in the morning -- most of them without appointments -- was not unusual.
"You just walked in the door," Mr. Sallitt said. "You didn't need an appointment. It was neat. He took care of everybody. For a long time, he was the only doctor in the Centreville area."
Mr. Sallitt said Dr. Smith was an unassuming man who served on county boards and was available for unofficial consultations on local issues.
"He knew a little bit about anything. He knew everybody. He always had time," said the county administrator.
Dr. Smith's son, Richard Smith, also of Centreville, said of his father: "He had a lot of bedside manner. He liked being a doctor. He liked helping people. If everybody had a job they liked as much as he did, they'd be lucky."
A Church Hill native and member of an established Eastern Shore family, Dr. Smith began his private practice in internal medicine in New York City in 1954. In the same period, he was an instructor at Cornell University Medical School and an attending physician at the New York Hospital for Cornell.
In 1960, he returned to the Eastern Shore and opened his practice in Centreville. At his death, he was serving a seventh term as president of the Queen Anne's County Medical Society.
Dr. Smith graduated from the University of Maryland Medical School, did his internship and residencies at the former Hospital for Women of Maryland and Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. He completed a fellowship in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
In 1951, Dr. Smith entered the Air Force as a captain and served as chief of medicine at Mitchell Air Force Base in Garden City, N.Y. That year, he and Rebecca Sturgis were married.
Dr. Smith served on many civic and professional boards, including the board of Farmers National Bank of Centreville, the Gunston School in Centreville and the vestry at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Church Hill.
Services are to be conducted at 2 p.m. today at St. Luke's Church, with burial in the Church Hill Cemetery.
In addition to his wife of 43 years and son, he is survived by another son, Douglas Smith of Ithaca, N.Y.; and a grandchild.
The family suggested that memorial donations be made to the Parish House Building Fund at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Box 38, Church Hill 21623.