Sidney Olsin Smith Jr., a lifetime Gainesville resident and retired federal judge known for his passion for education, died Saturday. He was 88.

Memorial services will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Grace Episcopal Church. The family will receive friends after the service at the fellowship hall.

Smith served in the Army during World War II, and attended Harvard University and the University of Georgia.

He began his legal practice in 1962 and served as both a superior court and federal court judge.

Smith and his family have long been associated with Brenau University. He was the fourth generation of his family to serve on the board of trustees at Brenau and at the time of his death Saturday morning, he still was an active member.

Smith also was chairman of the Gainesville Board of Education and he served on the state Board of Regents from 1980 to 1987. At the time of his appointment to the Board of Regents, Smith offered to resign from Brenau’s board to avoid any conflicts, but both groups voted to keep him.

In 2010, Brenau named its graduate school in his honor.

“Judge Smith was a classic Southern gentleman and a scholar,” said Brenau President Ed L. Schrader. “The judge was perhaps the most thoughtful person I have ever known. He carried on his family’s legacy of leadership at Brenau with integrity, enthusiasm, and energy. In many ways he was our moral and intellectual compass. He will be missed and remembered but never replaced. It was indeed very rewarding that he was able to see the graduate school carry his name forward, passed on through many new generations of students.”

At the time of his death, Smith was the longest-serving member of Grace Episcopal Church where he had been treasurer, vestryman and senior warden. He was a longtime member of the Gainesville Rotary Club.

While at Harvard, he played football on the same team with Robert Kennedy. Smith met and swapped stories with Kennedy’s youngest daughter, Rory, when she presented some of her documentary film work on the Brenau campus in 2008.

Smith graduated from the University of Georgia College of Law. He worked in private practice, served as a Georgia superior court judge and was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, where he served for nine years, including six as chief judge.

But his devotion to education might be his lasting legacy. At a 2011 fundraiser for the graduate school, Smith talked about the importance of educational opportunities to a city.

“It’s accepted a town with a college is a better town than one without a college,” Smith said at the time. “Brenau has fulfilled that role, making Gainesville a better place just by being here.”

At the same event, a proclamation from Gov. Nathan Deal mentioned how Smith’s service has helped fuel Brenau’s growth.

“His lifetime of public service has been essential in expanding educational opportunities around Georgia and instituting vital reform in our judicial system,” Deal wrote.

“Ultimately, Brenau University and, indeed, our state’s educational system would not be where it is today without his distinguished service.”

Smith’s mother, Isabelle Price Charters Smith, was both a Brenau graduate and a member of the Board of Trustees. She served simultaneously with Smith’s father, who was the first licensed insurance agent in Georgia.

He was the founder of a Gainesville insurance business that still bears his name.

Smith’s great-grandfather, William Pierce Price of Dahlonega, was a member of Brenau’s founding board in 1878. Smith’s grandfather, William Arthur Charters, was on the board in 1911 when Brenau became a charter institution of higher learning.

Smith was 12 years old when a deadly tornado stuck Gainesville, killing more than 200, on April 6, 1936. It remains the deadliest tornado in Georgia history.

In a documentary produced by The Times to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the tornado, Smith talked about his memories of that day.

“One of my best friends was Buck Ward, whose father was Ward’s Funeral Home back in those days,” he said. “We went in the house and there were three bodies that the funeral home had already put there because the funeral home itself was damaged. And that was a little bit of a shock to me.”

He also remembered how the community came together.

“Everybody who still had a house standing and some room opened it up for people who didn’t have a house left,” he said.

Memorials may be made to Brenau University or Grace Episcopal Church.