Smith graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst in 1894, where he remained until 1903. He then moved to California to help work on asparagus rust, which he discovered could be controlled by sulfur dust. As the only plant pathologist in the state and backed by the state’s agriculture industry and legislature, Smith led the way in bringing the study of plant pathology to the University of California campuses. His research program spanned a wide array of crops and diseases, including brown rot of stone fruits, olive knot, peach shot hole, and celery blight. Smith was a charter member of APS and served as the first president of the Pacific Division.
(Submitted for publication in July 2008.)
