GARDINER - The Rev. A. Raymond Smith, 96, of Gardiner died Saturday, Feb. 5, 2005, at the Alzheimer's Care Center in Gardiner. He was born Feb. 28, 1908, in Long Reach, New Brunswick, the son of Frederick Edwin and Frances (Holder) Smith. He attended schools in Long Reach and Kingston in New Brunswick and graduated from King's College Divinity School of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Tradition in 1932. During his long career in the ministry, Father Smith served parishes in New Bandon, Campobello, Stanley and St. Stephen in New Brunswick; Fort Fairfield, North Grafton, Mass.; Woodstock, Vt., and Augusta and Hallowell. Early in his ministry, Father Smith was Protestant chaplain for a small leper colony in Tracadie, New Brunswick. Later, he was rector of St. Anne's Anglican Church, Campobello Island, which was attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and family during their summers on the island. He was asked to participate in services at St. James Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, N.Y., during the 1939 Royal Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England. While Father Smith was serving at Saint Andrew's Church in North Grafton, he was instrumental in the construction of a new church building, with one of the first fiberglas steeples in the United States. He also created and conducted a radio program of evening prayer, titled 'Tis Eventide.' This program continued through his ministry at Saint James' Church in Woodstock. Father Smith was very active in the Ministry of Spiritual Healing and in the Order of Saint Luke, becoming well known in the field and eventually the director of the eastern region of the School of Pastoral Care. He officially retired from Saint James' in 1974 and returned to Maine to continue his ministry at St. Matthews in Hallowell and St. Barnabas in Augusta, until his final retirement in 1988. Father Smith had built a summer camp on the bank of the Saint John River in Long Reach in 1947. He greatly enjoyed returning there every summer with his family. He was predeceased by his first wife, the former Frances Plimsoll Withers, and his second wife, the former Katherine Collins Mayer. Father Smith is survived by a sister, Lillian Grant of Roxboro, Quebec; his three children, Frances Roger and her husband, John, of New Milford, Conn., Gray Smith, of South Thomaston, and Susannah Watts and her husband, Andrew, of Augusta; eight grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at a later date at Saint James' Anglican Church, Long Reach, New Brunswick. In lieu of donations or flowers, the family suggests an act of kindness for a senior citizen in Father Smith's memory. Arrangements are in the care of Knowlton and Hewins Funeral Home, 1 Church St., Augusta.