Hayden McKnight Smith, was born Monday, June 20, 1994, in Doctor’s Hospital at Coral Gables,
a suburb of Miami, FL. He was born to Aimee Jeannette La Buy Smith and Shepherd McKnight
Smith. He lived in Miami only 3 months before moving to Laurel, MD. After 6 months in Laurel,
he moved with his parents to Tallahassee, FL where he lived with his mom and dad as well as
two of his three Aunts (Ashley and Dawson Smith) and his uncle Colin.

Hayden moved from Tallahassee, FL to Northern Virginia in September of 1996, together with
his dad and very pregnant mom. His younger brother Lawton Thomas Smith was born in the
family home on January 22, 1997, and Hayden shined as a big brother right from day one.
Hayden began reading and writing whilst he was two years old, so he was home-schooled for
kindergarten, first and second grade. In third grade, he attended Sangster Elementary School in
their Gifted and Talented program. They were not prepared for his intellect, and he often was
caught reading during class lectures. He said he was sorry, but bored.

Hayden started Suzuki method piano classes at the suggestion of “Super Grandpa Harper,” at
the age of 4. It was the start of a life-long passion for music. He performed in many recitals
and played for the residents at a retirement home on several occasions. In addition to piano,
Hayden taught himself to play guitar, bass, and drums. He received countless awards for his
excellence in playing and especially in practicing piano. His teacher Nancy Matricardi blessed
him with a scholarship because of his dedication to playing, and his cousin Jason Hrissikopoulos
blessed him with lessons for a time when finances were tight.

Hayden grew up attending the Church of Christ at Fairfax. He put on our Lord in Baptism at age
10, being baptized by his Sunday School teacher. He participated in youth group activities, SOS
(Showing Our Savior), and as a camper at Camp WAMAVA in the summers. He went on a
foreign mission trip with his mom and a group of adults at age 14 to the Dominican Republic;
there, he helped lay concrete floors for families whose homes had the dirt as their floor, and
painted beds that belonged to the orphanage.

Hayden attended and graduated from Lake Braddock High School, where he founded a Gay-
Straight Alliance club and participated as an editor on the school’s newspaper and a contributor
to the poetry magazine. During high school, Hayden volunteered for the union Unite Here! as
well as for the Sierra Club. Hayden played in several bands in high school, sometimes singing
vocals, other times playing bass guitar (self-taught). He also founded a chapter of the Students
for a Democratic Society, which he ran for 3 years.

Hayden went on to college in Poultney, Vermont to Green Mountain College (GMC), where he
earned a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies in 2017. (He studied at Northern Virginia
community college for one semester as well). GMC was a perfect fit for him, tiny and in the
middle of nowhere, but filled with progressive, activist minded students like himself. He made
many good friends there, and he maintained those friendships to the end. He participated in
several iterations of rock bands, together with his best friends Macaulay Lerman and Will ​
Morse. At the time of his passing, he was in a band called Summit Prowler, and he had written
all of the groups lyrics for their original songs, which was preparing to tour starting this
summer.

Hayden loved his cat, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, very much and his other cat, Mercury who lives
with his former long time partner. Picard and Mercury were both rescue cats. Picard now lives
with his bonne maman (Aimee) in Springfield.

Hayden completed a Master of Science degree in Environmental Policy with a concentration in
Environmental Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA on March 20, 2021.
Subsequently, he joined the U.S. DOT Volpe Center in 2022 as a policy analyst in the Energy
Analysis and Sustainability Division, supporting climate risk analysis and resiliency planning for
FAA among other projects. Prior to joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Hayden served as an
AmeriCorps VISTA member in Philadelphia, creating a regional network of colleges and
universities to collaborate on advancing sustainability goals. Hayden also participated in the
Regional Climate Governance and Adaptive Management Working Group of the Climate
Resilience Research Agenda team, organized by the Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban
Northeast in 2021.

Hayden is survived by: his parents, Aimee Jeannette La Buy and Shepherd Mcknight Smith, both
of Northern Virginia; his step-father, Joseph Purcell Crane; his step-mother, Imola Ekart
Balintfy; his brother, Lawton Thomas Smith, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; his sister, Jocelyne La
Buy Smith; and a half-brother, Laszlo Ekart Smith. He is also survived by his paternal
grandmother, Judith Henderson Harper; his paternal step-grandfather, Christopher Harper, and
aunts Dawson and Ashley Smith, Rebecca Hrissikopoulos, and uncles Christopher La Buy, Sean
La Buy, and Colin Smith; cousins James Jonathan La Buy, Jason Hrissikopoulos, Kassandra
Hrissikopoulos, Duncan Smith, Juliette and Zander Smith, and Zoe, Noah, and Rowan.