Garrett struggled in school and in activities such as Boy Scouts, yet became an Eagle Scout and graduated from high school.
The outside world saw a smiling, happy child, but it was a child who knew private despair, his father said.
``That Garrett eluded me haunts me every day and probably will for the rest of my life,'' Smith said. ``He was a beautiful boy, and I loved him completely, without completely understanding him.''
When the elder Smiths learned of their son's death last September in Utah, they grappled with what to say publicly.
``We decided to tell the truth about our boy: that after years of depression, Garrett took his own life to end his pain,'' Gordon Smith said.
Later a dean at the University of Oregon told them that after Garrett's death was reported in the news media, the student health center was flooded with students looking for help, Smith said.
The students' reaction points to the need for greater awareness of the warning signs of suicide and depression among young people, lawmakers said as they advocated efforts to expand early intervention with the disease and encourage more federal research on youth suicide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3,000 people between the ages of 10 and 24 take their lives each year, the third-leading cause of death in that age group. More children and young adults die from suicide each year than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke and chronic disease combined.
``I wish this hearing was not necessary. Yet we all know that it is,'' said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. ``Youth suicide is both a public and mental health tragedy.''
Dodd and Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Health and Education subcommittee on substance abuse and mental health services, plan to introduce a bill this month. By speaking out, the lawmakers said, Smith and his wife are helping erase the shame of suicide and may encourage others to seek help.