Editing E. E. Smith (section)

===Family and education===
Edward Elmer Smith was born in [[Sheboygan, Wisconsin]], on May 2, 1890, to Fred Jay Smith and Caroline Mills Smith, both staunch [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]] of British ancestry.<ref>Moskowitz p. 11. For this and all following dates, see also the timelines in Lucchetti pp. 31–35 and 113–47 and, to a lesser extent, Sanders pp. 1–2.</ref> His mother was a teacher born in Michigan in February 1855; his father was a sailor, born in [[Maine]] in January 1855 to an English father.<ref name="census1900">1900 Census, House 1515, Residence 438, Family 371, 3rd Ward of Spokane County, Washington, recorded June 13, 1900, accessed via online census images at heritagequest.com</ref> They moved to [[Spokane, Washington]], the winter after Edward Elmer was born,<ref>Sanders p. 1 & 7. Trestrail p. 2 instead says that the family moved that year to Idaho, but Moskowitz p. 11–12 and Eshbach p. 85 both seem to agree with Sanders.</ref> where Mr. Smith was working as a contractor in 1900.<ref name = "census1900"/> In 1902, the family moved to Seneaquoteen,<ref name="sanders1">Sanders p. 1.</ref> near the [[Pend Oreille River]], in [[Kootenai County]], Idaho.<ref>Moskowitz p. 11–12.</ref> He had four siblings, Rachel M. born September 1882, Daniel M. born January 1884, Mary Elizabeth born February 1886 (all of whom were born in Michigan), and Walter E. born July 1891 in [[Washington (state)|Washington]].<ref name="census1900" /> In 1910, Fred and Caroline Smith and their son Walter were living in the Markham Precinct of [[Bonner County, Idaho]]; Fred is listed in census records as a farmer.<ref>1910 Census, Residence 37, Family 37, Markham Precinct, Bonner County, Idaho, recorded April 25, 1910, accessed via heritagequest.com.</ref>

Smith worked mainly as a manual laborer until he injured his wrist while fleeing from a fire at the age of 19. He attended the [[University of Idaho]]. (Many years later he would be installed in the 1984 Class of the University of Idaho Alumni Hall of Fame.<ref>Letter from Flip Kleffner, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Idaho Alumni Association, to Verna Smith Trestrail, dated February 27, 1984.</ref>) He entered its [[College-preparatory school|prep school]] in 1907, and graduated with two degrees in [[chemical engineering]] in 1914.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Edward E.|title=The People Who Make Other Worlds, No. 11: Edward E. Smith|url=https://archive.org/details/Other_Worlds_27v05n03_1953-03/page/n1/mode/2up|journal=Other Worlds|date=March 1953 |volume=5|issue=3|pages=1, 159}}</ref> He was president of the Chemistry Club, the Chess Club, and the Mandolin and Guitar Club, and captain of the Drill and Rifle Team; he also sang the bass lead in [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] operettas.<ref>Sanders p. 8</ref> His undergraduate thesis was ''Some Clays of Idaho'', co-written with classmate Chester Fowler Smith, who died in California of [[tuberculosis]] the following year, after taking a teaching fellowship at Berkeley.<ref>[[Latah County, Idaho]] [http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=17836 Star-Mirror, March 25, 1915] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504002912/http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=17836 |date=May 4, 2008 }}.</ref> Whether the two were related is not known.

On October 5, 1915, in [[Boise, Idaho]]<ref>[http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/westernStatesRecordDetail.cfm?recordID=84846 Western States Marriage Index Entry 84846] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927202902/http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/westernStatesRecordDetail.cfm?recordID=84846 |date=September 27, 2007 }}, accessed April 5, 2007</ref> he married Jeanne Craig MacDougall, the sister of his college roommate, Allen Scott (Scotty) MacDougall.<ref>Trestrail pp. 3 & 4, Sanders p. 8, Moskowitz p. 13. Trestrail spells the name "Allen."</ref> (Her sister was named Clarissa MacLean MacDougall; the heroine of the ''Lensman'' novels would later be named Clarrissa MacDougall.) Jeanne MacDougall was born in [[Glasgow]], Scotland; her parents were Donald Scott MacDougall, a violinist, and Jessica Craig MacLean. Her father had moved to Boise when the children were young, and later sent for his family; he died while they were en route in 1905. Jeanne's mother, who remarried businessman and retired politician John F. Kessler in 1914<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hawley |first=James Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-t8UAAAAYAAJ |title=History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains |date=1920 |publisher=S.J. Clarke Publishing Company |language=en}}</ref> worked at, and later owned, a boarding house on Ridenbaugh Street.

The Smiths had three children. Roderick N., born June 3, 1918, in the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]], was employed as a design engineer at [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]] Aircraft. Verna Jean (later Verna Smith Trestrail), born August 25, 1920, in Michigan, was E. E. Smith's literary executor until her death in 1994. (Her son Kim Trestrail is now the executor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ethanfleischer.com/lensman/smithexhibit.htm|title=Z9M9Z - A Lensman Website - Noreascon 4, E. E. "Doc" Smith Exhibit|website=www.ethanfleischer.com}}</ref>) [[Robert A. Heinlein]] in part dedicated his 1982 novel ''[[Friday (novel)|Friday]]'' to Verna.<ref>{{cite book | author=Heinlein, Robert A. | title=Friday| publisher=New England Library | year=1984 | isbn=0-450-05549-3}}</ref> Clarissa M. (later Clarissa Wilcox), was born December 13, 1921, in Michigan.<ref>Lucchetti p. 32, Warner, Moskowitz p. 22.</ref>