McGillicuddy made quite a stir in Petrolia. Smith’s daughter Marion Hicks, later recounted a memory of how the town reacted to the ocelot living in their midst. One day her father took McGillicuddy into the Bell Telephone office to pay a bill. “[The operators] took one look at McGillicuddy and all screamed and jumped up on their stools. My dad was so embarrassed,” said Marion in a 2008 interview. Ultimately McGillicuddy the ocelot had to be given to the Detroit Zoo after he leaped onto Smith’s back, leaving deep claw marks.

In his career as an International Driller, Smith travelled across the world, working in Iran, Spain, Colombia, Western Canada, and Oklahoma. Smith was built to handle the hard work and long days of an International Driller - as a youth he was a well-known local hockey player and also played for the local Dominion rugby team.

But even men as hail as Smith were not immune to the dangers of international drilling. In 1959 while working in Venezuela, he suddenly fell ill. Despite being flown to a hospital in New York, Smith was not able to recover. He died in July of 1959.