A bit of sad news. Leland Smith passed away on December 17th. I saw his obituary noticein the January 11th issue of the Daily Post. None of us should be surprised, knowing that he had been in failing health. Nonetheless, it is sad to learn of the death of one of Barron Park’s originals, a talented musician and scholar and a very gentle and kind person.Leland was an emeritus professor of music at Stanford. A memorial gathering will be held at the Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18. The center is at 660 Lomita Drive on the Stanford campus.An obituary notice appeared in the Stanford News on January 10th that reviews his impressive academic career. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/january/leland-smith-obit-010914.html
Leland was appropriately very proud of his pioneering work in creating a computer coding system, SCORE, for typesetting music that is still in use today. Not a musician myself, I first heard about his work in this area from Leland himself, about a decade ago, one Sunday morning at Bol Park while he was watching over the donkeys. Many residents of Barron Park know Leland for is his many contributions to the donkeys, and his devotion to them is recognized by noting that his family has asked that memorial gifts can be made to the Palo Alto Donkey Project.
The Smith connection to the Barron Park Donkeys
Both Leland and his late wife, Edith, along with Inge Harding-Barlow and James Bronson, were very instrumental first in creating the “donkey project”, which insured that the Bol family donkeys would have – and continue to have – a home in Barron Park after the Bol property was sold to James Witt, and then in creating the donkey handler group who have cared for and supported the donkeys.Many references to the Smiths and their activities with the donkeys over the years are in the BPA newsletters, including a long article by Zoie Nicholas in the Spring 2003 BPA newsletterand in a number of photos that I have posted below.Art Liberman
Leland feeding Mickey in 1997
Donkey handlers: From top left, Ted Thomas, Pat Rogow, Edith Smith, Leland Smith, bottom left, Doug Moran and Inge Harding-Barlow in 1997.
Perry and Niner visiting Barron Park School kindergarten class in 2000, Leland on the right
