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M. Smith Kirkpatrick.

Smith Kirkpatrick passed away peacefully at his home June 5. At his bedside were his daughters, Anna Marie and Katie, his two grandchildren, and his niece, as well as several friends and former students.

Smith Kirkpatrick came to the University of Florida in the early 1950s on the G.I. Bill to study fiction writing with Andrew Lytle, who became his mentor and long time friend. Smith, known as Kirk to many of his beloved students, taught Creative Writing at the University of Florida after Andrew Lytle left the University of Florida in the early 1960s to become the editor of the prestigious Sewanee Review. One of Kirk’s best known students, Harry Crews, dedicated his first novel, The Gospel Singer, to Kirk, writing in the inscription, “To Smith Kirkpatrick, whose apprentice I am.”

Over the years, Smith Kirkpatrick influenced the lives of many young people. He was a fine writer in his own right. Besides publishing a novel, The Sun’s Gold, based on his experiences in the merchant marine, he also published critical essays, and short stories in such prestigious magazines as Sewanee Review and Southern Review. His essay on the structure of Katherine Anne Porter’s novel, A Ship of Fools, for instance, received critical acclaim for its penetrating insights.

Possibly Smith Kirkpatrick’s most significant contribution to the University of Florida was as founder of The University of Florida Writer’s Conference. The very first conference in 1972 featured not only highly respected writers whom Mr. Kirkpatrick personally recruited but also agents and editors who could help young writers get started in the extremely competitive writing profession. Among the novelists, short story writers, and poets who attended that first conference were John Crowe Ransom, Andrew Lytle, Peter Taylor, Donne Pearce, author and screenwriter of Cool Hand Luke, and the University of Florida’s very own short story writer Merrill Joan Gerber, later recognized in 1997 as a University of Florida Woman of Distinction. Drawn to this original conference by the quality of the participants, Viking Press sent its vice-president for fiction, Alan Williams, to look for new, young talent, and John Hawkins, noted New York literary agent, offered his financial expertise to students about the publishing business.

It is well to note that the cornerstone of Smith Kirkpatrick’s vision for The Florida Writer’s Conference was based on the belief that it should facilitate informal, tutorial relationships between the accomplished writers and the students. To that end, Mr. Kirkpatrick emphasized that the conference was for the students. This emphasis resulted in much enthusiastic response for the conference, as Mr. Kirkpatrick guided it in subsequent years. Out of this response grew the commitments of John Ciardi, John Frederick Nims, and James Dickey to conduct seminars in poetry writing at the University of Florida. John Knowles, author of the classic novel, A Separate Peace, contributed his expertise on fiction writing, and Truman Capote came to the university to read aloud his short story, “A Christmas Memory,” to a packed crowd of students in the Plaza of Americas.

Smith Kirkpatrick’s influence on the local Gainesville artistic community was perhaps more subtle but equally important. While married to Santa Fe Community College English instructor, Barbara Kirkpatrick, Smith helped organize what has come to be known as the Spring Arts Festival. This revered gathering of artists on the boulevard in downtown Gainesville was originally timed to coincide with The University of Florida Writer’s Conference so that the resources of the University of Florida and Santa Fe could be combined to offer a full complement of the arts both to the community and to students. This festival is now a signature event in the Greater Gainesville Area.