Letters: My memory of William Beattie (Bill) Smith

The privilege of knowing William Beattie (Bill) Smith (December 19) was far too short-lived for me.

He got in touch almost two years ago about The Idea of the Union, a book I had edited in 1995, and offered to co-edit a timely revision in defence of NI’s place in the UK, which he did.

His credentials were impeccable. He had a doctorate in political science from prestigious Stanford University in California, was a senior research fellow at Queen's University, and had published an impressive study, The British State and the Northern Ireland Crisis.

We worked hard on the revision and he was painstaking during our collaboration. When we met infrequently, I enjoyed his drollery and modest delivery in conversation, the latter honed, perhaps, by a career in sensitive civil service positions in N. Ireland. I also found a man able now to voice his opinions publicly as he couldn't before retirement, and to be a committed and articulate proponent of the Union.

He had also begun to write poetry, that risky blend of personal feeling and public expression, and with the air of a man who knew that illness was shortening his future time. I was flattered to be asked to write the Foreword to his slim volume, Irregularities (Flying Dog Publications), published this year.

I had looked forward to seeing him again on my return to Belfast and outside the duties of co-editing, but it is not to be. But at least the vivid memory of a wise, amiable and distinguished figure is unlikely to fade.

John Wilson Foster, British Columbia, Canada