Dianne E. Smith - Co-Founder

(1965 - 2014)

Before her passing, Dianne co-founded and served as both the Vice President of Operations and Director of Business Development and Marketing for Fort Strategic, LLC. She and David Fort co-founded Fort Strategic and she believed with all of her heart in the mission and the amazing possibilities of this firm. She worked countless late nights laying the foundation for this company and without her dedication, leadership and keen wit, Fort Strategic would not have the great present and the amazingly, bright future that it has. For all of this and more, all at the firm are eternally grateful to Dianne and until the end of time, she will never be forgotten.

 

If you were lucky enough to have met Dianne, you remembered her. Her big, blue eyes and impish grin brightened every room she entered. Her wit and infectious humor - and the passion she threw at living every day- made her impossible to forget.

 

She came into the world in March of 1965 and left it 49 years later, on December 12th, 2014.

 

In those years, she tore, like a force of nature, through many lives. And all of us – no one but she could know how many there are – were shattered by the loss of her beauty, spirit and sense of fun.

 

Dianne attended Beverly High School, North Shore Community College and University of California Santa Cruz spending most of the past 20 years in Gloucester and Manchester-by-the-sea, Massachusetts. Dianne worked many places in her adventures, including in Silicon Valley and in the green technology industry. Additionally, Dianne worked part-time as a fundraiser recruiter for Integral Resources Incorporated, a Democratic fundraising organization.

 

In every place she lived, she created a circle of friends who adored her, laugh with her and thrived on her passion for living. She could-and in fact did, at least once – transform a funeral from somber, tear-stained and uncomfortable to giggling, laughing outright and celebrating the life that passed. Those of us who loved Di are having trouble doing that. She would certainly find exactly the thing to say to turn the emptiness she left behind into joy that she lived and dark acceptance that she is, finally, at peace.

 

Dianne is survived by her mother Ena; brothers, Paul and David; sister, Christina Wood; brother-in-law, Daniel Tynan; nieces Ava Tynan-Wood, Anita Smith and Jeanette Lizarraga and nephew, Cole-Tynan-Wood.