Tim Smith was born March 20th, 1949 in Pendleton, Oregon to Jack H. Smith and Lillian L. Smith. The Smith family lived in Hermiston, Oregon.  He was born in Pendleton because there was no hospital in Hermiston at that time. Tim has an older brother Art and a Sister Judy. He was raised as a Lutheran. Tim’s Father was born and raised in Pilot Rock, Oregon.

Tim went to school in Hermiston and graduated from Hermiston High in 1967. During his school years, he participated in football, basketball and baseball. He also spent his weekends hunting and fishing throughout Eastern Oregon. He worked on local ranches and construction crews in the summers from the time he was 13 years old to save money until he went away to college in 1967.

Tim started his college career in Corvallis at Oregon State University in 1967, in the School of Forestry. He was married in late 1968 to Colleen. Over the next 5 years, they had a son Nickolas and Tim finished his college studies at the University of Oregon. In 1972 he received a B.Sc. degree in Geology from the U of O with a minor in Education. In 1974, he and Colleen had another son Tyler.

From his junior year at the University of Oregon until 1973, Tim worked part time during school and full time summers as a researcher and geologist for St. Joe Minerals Corporation, an international mining company. In 1973, Tim took a job as a geologist for Sunshine Mining Co. from Kellog, Idaho. He worked for Sunshine Mining on mineral exploration projects throughout the Western U.S., Canada and Alaska until 1976. At that time, he took a job with Selection Trust, a British Mining Company who eventually became the mining arm of British Petroleum (BP). He worked for BP as an Exploration Geologist and then as a Senior Exploration Geologist throughout North America with tours in Australia, Europe, South Africa and South America. His primary area of work for BP was in the Western U.S. where he ran a Western Regional Exploration office out of Jackson, California with annual exploration budgets in excess of $1.1 million. Tim had the privilege of presenting a paper on alluvial gold deposits in California to the British Royal Geological Society in London, England in 1982. He worked for B.P. until 1985 when he started his consulting business, TKS Consulting and Contract Geologic Services. Tim was president of the Central Sierra Mining Association from 1985 to 1990 and is currently a Director.

From 1985 to the present Tim Smith has run a geologic and environmental consulting business, now called TKS Consulting Ltd. TKS Consulting’s primary efforts now are in groundwater geology, mining consulting and permitting, environmental compliance and environmental cleanup.

From 1985 to the current time, Tim has continued his post university education with numerous classes taken at U.C. Davis in Davis, Ca., U.C. Berkeley in Berkeley, Ca., and Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

In 1994, he moved back to Oregon and bought a small cattle and hay ranch in Harney County near Burns. Tim, Holly and friends built a new house on the site of old Fort Harney in 1995. In 1996, he married Holly Richardson, his second marriage. They currently run Fort Harney Ranch, TKS Consulting Ltd. and Holly has stepped back into banking as the Manager of The Burns Branch of U.S. Bank. On the Ranch, they raise and sell Red Angus cattle and sell hay locally. Tim lost his father in 2006 and his mother still lives in Hermiston, Oregon.

Tim’s oldest son Nick and his wife Allison moved to Boise from Anchorage, Alaska in 2005. Nick works for an international engineering and consulting firm. He has B.Sc. degrees in Business Finance and Environmental Engineering. They gave Tim and Holly their third grandchild in 2007.  Tim’s youngest son Tyler and his wife Sherry live in Hubbard, Oregon and have a boy born in September 2007 and a new baby girl. In 2006 Tyler finished Law School at Willamette University, passed his Oregon Bar Exam and has a private practice in Canby. Both sons’ first college degrees were from the University of Oregon. Nick also obtained an engineering degree from Oregon State University.

Tim’s community activities include:
Vice Chair of the Oregon Republican Party, (ORP); Chairman of the Harney County Republican Central Committee; Chairman 2nd Congressional District, ORP; Co-Chair of the ORP Speakers, Outreach and Issues Committee; Past Chair of the ORP Credentials Committee; Past Chairman of the State Groundwater Advisory Committee; The Secretary and principal driver behind the Harney Lake Basin Working Group; Past Chairman of the Harney County Watershed Council; Chairman of the Board of Directors Of Harney County Health District (Hospital Board); Past Chair of the Harney County  Branch of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Small Grants Team; Member Senate Bill 1010 Local Advisory Committee; A Director of the Central Sierra Mining Assn; A Director of Water for Life, and Tim has been a “Lunch Buddy” at the local elementary schools.

Tim’s most admired people are: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Ronald Reagan, Denny Jones and anyone who will stand up for what they believe is right, fair and just even when it may be against their own personal best interest.

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