Robert Taylor Smith, age 86, passed away Wednesday night, April 24, 2025. Born on January 2, 1939 in County Durham, northeastern England, to Robert Taylor Smith and Ellen (Aspey) Smith, Bob enjoyed a successful technical career and an active life as a choral music singer and long-time soccer player. In 1981, he married Darlene (Magocs) Smith in Mendon, Vermont, while on a skiing vacation with friends. Their son, Taylor Aspey Smith was born later that year.

Bob decided at age 13 that he wanted to become a physicist, and was awarded several academic scholarships to fund that dream, earning Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees in Physics while studying at Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England. In 1965, Bob emigrated to the United States of America and settled initially in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. From 1965, Bob worked for many years at Bell Laboratories, followed by various units of the Bell System, including Western Electric, AT&T Technologies, and Lucent Technologies, until finally retiring in 2004, from Agere Systems. Initially at Bell Labs, Bob did experimental research on new, synthetic single crystal materials and used ultrasonic methods to determine all their basic material constants and temperature dependence. After promotion to Technical Supervisor, Bob worked for almost the rest of his career on semiconductor memory design, testing, mask making and manufacturing yield improvement. He led a team that invented technology that used lasers to program redundant circuitry on semiconductor memory devices, dramatically reducing manufacturing costs. In 1982, Bob was named 'Semiconductor Man of the Year' by Solid State Magazine. Near the end of his career, Bob worked on corporate strategic planning, and developed analytical techniques to support decisions on whether to start, continue or stop product development. He retired as a Senior Manager.

All through college, Bob sang with the Imperial College choir, and continued that love of choral music soon after moving to the Lehigh Valley, singing for several years with Ifor Jones and Cantata Singers in Quakertown. He later sang with, and for many years was president of Camerata Singers and Lehigh University Choral Union. Bob was a skilled soccer player, finally giving up playing at age 42, but switched to coaching his son's Southern Lehigh team for many years. He and wife Darlene were both avid skiers, and spent many vacations skiing all over the USA and Europe. They later enjoyed many cruises to Alaska, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and South America.

Bob is survived by his wife, Darlene, sister, Valerie, son Taylor and wife Bi, granddaughters Sophia and Averie, and many English nieces and cousins.

Services: A memorial service will be held at 4 P.M. on Thursday, May 1, 2025, at the Cantelmi Long Funeral Home, 500 Linden Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018 where the family will receive relatives and friends from 3 P.M. until time of the service. A memory tribute may be placed at www.cantelmifuneralhome.com.

Contributions: In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Bob's name to The Camerata Singers via mail to 1524 W. Linden Street, Allentown, PA 18102 and/or Amedisys Hospice Care via mail to 3897 Adler Place, Building C, Suite 180, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 18017.