Law enforcement officials have disclosed that a senior care executive who was beloved in The Villages was found brutally murdered.
Tim Smith, a former resident of The Villages, who was the executive director of the Brookdale Chambrel Pinecastle independent, assisted living and memory care facilities in Ocala, was found dead Saturday in Citrus Park by Marion County sheriff’s deputies. The 59-year-old appeared to have suffered a violent attack prior to his death.
It’s a tragic end for Smith, who carefully balanced his professional life with his life as a gay man who proudly performed in drag shows as Augusta Wind.
Smith was among those who gathered in 2015 at Lake Sumter Landing to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling upholding gay marriage. He and his husband were married months later in a ceremony in The Villages.
He was previously the director of operations for Villages Rehab in Lady Lake and was highly respected in the senior care community. He held a master of business administration from Nova Southeastern University, a master’s degree in social work from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a bachelor’s degree in religious education from the University of Mobile in Alabama. Smith excelled in executive roles in a conservative industry in deeply conservative communities.
He was a fifth generation Floridian and grew up on his family’s farm west of Gainesville, in Dixie County, near the Suwannee River.
“I would not trade one second of my life for anything, neither the good nor the so called bad. It is unique to me and that unique path has helped me to become the person I am today,” Smith said in an interview in 2014 with Villages-News.com.
