Nathan Lewis Smith Jr., a retired State Highway Administration assistant chief engineer, died of pneumonia June 8 at Glen Meadows Retirement Community in Glen Arm. He was 85.

Mr. Smith began his career with the old State Roads Commission in 1961. In addition to being assistant chief engineer, he also was chief of materials and research. He retired from the SHA in 1981.

He was born in Baltimore and raised in Forest Park, where he graduated from high school in 1935. He earned his bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College in 1939. During World War II, he served in the Navy and, as executive officer of the USS LST 519, participated in the D-Day invasion in 1944. Discharged with the rank of lieutenant in 1946, he remained in the Naval Reserve until 1953.

In the late 1940s, he went to work for J.E. Griener Co. In 1949 he joined Bituminous Construction Co. Mr. Smith was a member of the Maryland Asphalt Hall of Fame and had been committee chairman of the American Society of Testing and Materials. He also served on committees of the National Academy of Science and the National Research Council.

He enjoyed gardening, golf and crossword puzzles. A gourmet cook who was called "Beeb," by family members, he wrote Beeb's Cuisine, a how-to cookbook for his five grandsons. He was a longtime member of Stony Run Friends Meeting.

Mr. Smith was married in 1941 to Eleanor Barbour, who died in 1999. Services are private.

He is survived by a son, Nathan L. Smith III of North Andover, Mass.; a daughter, Alice K. Reid of Monkton; a sister, Virginia Andrew of Baltimore; and five grandsons.