Wheel'n'round The Workshop: Michael Louis Smith Blind Woodworker

I have to thank Frank from Woodcraft for putting me in touch with Michael Louis Smith Woodcraft did a story on Michael called "Hooked On A Feeling" back in September 2012.

I found Michael website Falconcrest Woodworks contacted him and he is glad to be a part and allow this to spread.

I see no reason not to link to my web site. If I can be of help to others I wish to make myself available to that end. Time here is short and what we do now is what is important. I am not much on this technical marvel so just let
me know how I can be of help to others. Mike

Michael Smith


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Michael Louis Smith was born on July 21st, 1952, in Artesia, New Mexico. He is married and the father of five children ranging from the ages of seventeen years to thirty-eight years (two boys and three girls).

Michael is a retired Navy and Air Force veteran. For twenty-five years Michael worked as a maintenance electrician. His favorite hobbies were fishing and woodworking.

On July 5th, 2009, Michael woke up with blurred vision in his left eye. He immediately went to see an ophthalmologist who then referred him to a neurologist. After several tests at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, including cat scans, spinal taps, and a double biopsy of the eyes, doctors determined he was totally blind in his left eye. They decided he was fine to return to work in September of 2009. They believed he would learn to adjust and deal with vision in one eye and work successfully again.

On October 23, 2009, a Sunday morning, Michael woke up and realized he was losing vision in his right eye. Within five days he had lost 95% of the vision in that eye as well.

In February, 2010, he was admitted to a VA Blind rehab center in Birmingham, Alabama, where he spent three months learning to deal with his disability. While he was there he learned he could once again do woodworking. Michael came home with a new outlook on life and began working immediately making wooden bowls, cutting boards, serving trays, chess/checker boards, etc.

Michael spends his days working in his shop, praying, and working on woodworking projects. He believes that God has a reason for his blindness and that he can minister to others through his woodworking. (Romans 8:28)