Marine saddened at passing of former official Archie Smith…
Club historian David Wotherspoon has paid the following tribute to Archie who sadly passed away earlier this week.
“Archie Smith played a key role as a committee man at Marine through the crucial 1970s when the social side took off and the club enjoyed its first really sustained success on the field since the end of the war.
He and his wife Joan thoroughly enjoyed the massively popular Saturday cabaret and with an interest too in the football side he was quickly recruited onto the management committee.
These were sometimes difficult days as the social club with its own committee was booming and that led to clashes with the main committee. Archie was a tremendous asset in these situations. He could see and appreciate different points of view and always brought a cool head and his considerable business skills to any discussion.
He was extremely good company with a great, dry sense of humour and enjoyed his annual trips in the 1970s to Wembley with club officials to watch the FA Cup final. During this time he became a key fundraiser for Marine running the Club’s weekly tote.
He stayed on the committee into the 1980s after the social committee had been disbanded and then became a director of the Club’s Rossett Park Land Company. Archie became chairman of the Company in 1992, retiring in 2012.
He will be remembered fondly for the support he gave to his local football club, Marine for nearly 50 years.”
