[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 41 (Friday, March 9, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E506-E507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO DANIEL R. SMITH, SR.

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 9, 2007

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Madam Speaker, I rise to speak about Daniel R. 
``Dan'' Smith, Sr., a truly remarkable man who will be celebrating his 
75th birthday this Sunday, March 11.
  Born in Winsted, CT, on March 11, 1932, Dan is one of a few surviving 
African-American children of a slave. His father, Abram Smith, was born 
in 1863. Age 70 when Dan was born, he died when Dan was 6. Dan's 
mother, Clara Wheeler Smith, was a young bride. A domestic worker, she 
raised her 8 children plus other foster children.
  Dan graduated from Gilbert High School in Winsted, Connecticut. He 
entered the U.S. Army and served in Korea as a medic, operating room 
technician, in the Korean War. He also was trained as a water safety 
instructor and after returning home from Korea, he performed heroic 
actions during the 1955 Winsted flood, diving into a raging river and 
saving a man's life.
  Dan attended Springfield College, in Massachusetts, where he majored 
in general studies with minors in psychology and sociology. He was 
elected student body president and graduated in 1960.
  During the 1960s he had a broad range of professional experiences. 
Building on his education and experiences as a medic in the Army, he 
served as a social worker at Norwich State Hospital, a 3,000 bed 
psychiatric hospital in Connecticut, and at the Seaside Regional Center 
for the mentally retarded in Waterford, Connecticut.
  One of Dan's many loves is animals, especially dogs. During high 
school he had worked for a veterinarian and learned to be a dog 
trainer. He took additional pre-med courses and was accepted into the 
Veterinary School of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.
  This was during the height of the Civil Rights movement, however, and 
the pull of public service was strong. Dan left his studies to become 
executive director of an anti-poverty program launched by Sargent 
Shriver in Lowndes County, Alabama, one of the Civil Rights' ``hot 
beds.'' The church in which his program was housed was burned by 
arsonists, but he had carefully saved all his documentation, and was 
able to start again almost immediately. He participated in many Civil 
Rights activities and nearly lost his life at the hands of the KKK. He 
was with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the march from Selma to 
Montgomery.
  As a result of his excellent administration of the anti-poverty 
program, Mr. Smith was given the opportunity to enter the Federal 
Government at the national office of VISTA in Washington, DC. He later 
moved to the Office of Health Affairs in the Office of Economic 
Opportunity, OEO.
  While at OEO he served as Assistant Chief of Program Development, and 
developed a national program of Neighborhood Health Centers, NHCs, that 
provided ambulatory health care for low income communities throughout 
the United States, using a medical team approach. He was responsible 
for developing NHCs in Bedford Stuyvesant, San Francisco's Chinatown, 
and St. Louis, Missouri. He also established and served as Chief of 
OEO's Consumer Affairs office, where he designed a pilot multi-
dimensional training program.
  In 1972, Dan became the National Director and Chief of the Area 
Health Education Program (AHEC), a medical health education program 
that he designed and implemented at the National Institute of Health. 
He worked with medical schools throughout the United States to provide 
more primary care and family practice physicians and related health 
professionals. At $165 million annually, it became the largest social 
contract program in the nation. One of the finest of these programs 
continues today at the University of Colorado's School of Medicine. 
Acknowledged as the ``father'' of AHEC, Dan received a distinguished 
service award for his outstanding management of the program.
  During the 1980s Dan was awarded an IPA (Intergovernmental Personnel 
Agreement) position at Georgetown University Medical School as a 
Research Associate, where he was involved in research and teaching. He 
returned to the Federal Government as Director of Bilateral and Sub-
Saharan African Programs in the Office of International Health and was 
responsible for developing Emergency Medical Services programs in 
Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
  Because of his expertise in administrating medical programs, in 1986 
the White House officially requested his assistance with the Republic 
of South Africa to develop a program similar to AHEC. He was 
subsequently invited by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to attend his Capetown 
installation as the Episcopal Bishop of South Africa.
  Dan later served as Special Projects Manager in the Administrator's 
Office of the Department of Health and Human Services. He retired from 
the Federal Government in 1994.
  Still working, Dan has established and owns an import/export company, 
Takoma Enterprises LLC, for which he serves as president and CEO. 
Active in community and religious organizations, he served on the board 
of trustees of Springfield College and senior warden of St. Luke's 
Episcopal Church, Bethesda, MD. An usher at the Washington National 
Cathedral, Dan served as head usher at the Cathedral, where he has 
escorted Presidents and other dignitaries at special services, 
including

[[Page E507]]

the memorial service following the events of September 11, 2001.
  Dan has four surviving siblings who still reside in Connecticut: His 
brother, A. Wilson ``Abe'' Smith, and sisters Marion Hanson, Jenny 
Brown and Henrietta Reed. He has two adult children from a previous 
marriage. His daughter April is married to a South African, Andrew 
Motaung. Both are teachers with advanced degrees. They have a 3\1/2\-
year-old child, Tselane, and live in Columbia, MD. His son, Daniel 
Robert Smith, Jr., a graduate of Syracuse University, is an actor who 
resides in New York City, stage name Robert Mauzell.
  In 2002 Dan met Loretta Neumann, a neighbor. It should be noted that 
Loretta worked for me as a legislative assistant before she retired in 
2001 and, during the 1970s and 1980s, she also worked for the House 
Interior and Insular Affairs Committee when it was chaired by my 
father, Morris K. Udall, and for Representative John F. Seiberling of 
Ohio, who chaired the Committee's Public Lands and National Parks 
Subcommittee.
  Last but not least, Dan and Loretta were married on October 28, 2006, 
at the Washington National Cathedral. They reside in the Takoma 
neighborhood of Washington, DC, and from all reports are truly living 
happily ever after.

                          ____________________