Maxcy Smith-Kopell passed away peacefully at the Canyonlands Care Center on May 11, 2021.
Maxcy was born in Stratton, Nebraska, in 1924. Soon after her parents, Fredrick Norris and Beulah Smith, moved her to Bayard, Nebraska, where she spent her childhood. Her childhood was shaped by the Great Depression. She grew up working in the family bakery and on the family farm.
She attended the University of Nebraska and graduated with a medical degree. She then went on to the Bellevue Hospital Medical Center in New York City, where she became a board-certified pediatrician. During her internship, she met the love of her life, Harvey P. Kopell. They had two children by the names of William and Philip Kopell. She also had three grandchildren: Jacob, Annie and Jenny.
Maxcy was always professionally active and happy to teach and help others. For many years, she worked at Mount Sinai Hospital, and she volunteered her time at St. Lukes Medical Center in New York City. After moving to Peekskill, New York, she became medical director at the Peekskill Health Clinic. After retiring from that job, she went on to become medical director for Health Source HMO. She taught nurses to be nurse practitioners in the Newburgh Public School System under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Then she spent several years as the director of public health for Orange County, New York. She moved to Moab after her final professional retirement and has lived here for the past 18 years.
Her hobbies included cooking, baking, sewing, horticulture and helping people in need. She always had an interest in native cultures. She never had an unkind word to say about anybody.
Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
Funeral services are pending at this time. You may send condolences to the family at www.spanishvalleymortuary.com.
