Howard K. Smith
1914 - 2002

Howard Kingsbury Smith, a broadcaster and journalist, was born in Ferriday, Louisiana, May 12, 1914. His father, also named Howard K. Smith, was of a gentlemen-farmer's family family from Lettsworth, Louisiana, and his mother, Minnie Gates, was the daughter of a Cajun river boat pilot. After graduating from Tulane University, Howard K. Smith won Rhodes Scholarship and attended Oxford University in England. He married Benedict Traberg, and Danish journalist, in 1942, to whom he refers as the most impressive person that he has ever known, far above presidents and generals.

Smith began his career as a news- paperman, first on the New Orleans Item, then with the United Press in London, and later with the New York Times. In 1942, he joined the Columbia Broadcasting System as its war-time Berlin correspondent, remaining with the network for 20 years. In 1962, he switched to the American Broadcasting Company, where reported for 17 years. Smith was chosen to moderate two presidential election debates: the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960 and the Carter-Reagan "Great Debate" in 1980. He covered some of the most important events in the 20th century: the surrender of the Germans to the Soviet Army in Marshal Zukov's headquarters outside Berlin, the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam War.

Howard K. Smith died of pneumonia aggravated by congestive heart failure on Friday evening, February 15, 2002, at his home in Bethesda, Maryland.