Craig A. Smith, associate professor of psychology and human development at Peabody College, died on Dec. 25, 2024, in Maine. He was 66.
Smith was an investigator for the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development and studied the relationships among cognition, emotion and adaptation. His recent collaborative research examined the roles of emotion and coping in long-term adaptation to chronic health conditions. After his cancer diagnosis, he learned to apply his research to his own life.
He earned his bachelor’s in psychology from Dartmouth before completing his doctorate at Stanford University and postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley. Smith came to Vanderbilt as an assistant professor in 1988, where he remained as a beloved member of the Peabody community, later serving as associate dean and then senior associate dean overseeing undergraduate education.
In his research, Smith investigated the role of cognitive appraisal in the differentiation of emotion, the psychophysiology of appraisal and emotion, the cognitive processes underlying appraisal, and the role of emotion and coping in long-term adaptation in stress. His more current laboratory efforts focused on the differentiation of positive emotional experience and the motivational functions served by different emotions. His work was published in numerous books and peer-reviewed journals.
Above all, Smith was a transformative mentor to his students, guiding and supporting them as they discovered and pursued their life’s passions. As a result, he was awarded the 2016 Chancellor’s Cup, Vanderbilt’s highest recognition for faculty contributions to students outside the classroom.
“Craig was a beloved leader of the Peabody community, dedicated to and admired by our students and by everyone who had the privilege of working with him,” said Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development. “He was a teacher at heart. The joy he had when teaching and mentoring was palpable. We miss him dearly and offer our heartfelt condolences to his family.”
Smith is survived by his wife, Leslie Kirby, BA’92, MS’96, PhD’99, former faculty member at Vanderbilt; his children, Rose Novick, Samara Kirith and Eli Kirith; his grandson, Elio; and a loving community of extended family and friends.
A celebration of Smith’s life and a shiva minyan was held at Congregation Micah in Brentwood on Monday, Jan. 6. Condolences may be mailed to Team Kirith, 41 School St., Old Orchard Beach, ME 04064.
