This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 18, 2011 - H. Parker Smith, a St. Louis businessman and civic leader whose early career was shaped by two intense periods of active duty in the U.S. Navy, died Monday (Oct. 17) of bladder cancer at St. Luke's Hospital's Surrey Place skilled nursing facility. He was 89 years old and most recently lived at 1 McKnight Place.
Henry Parker Smith was born and reared in St. Louis and grew up in Kingsbury Place in the city's Central West End. He was the son of Jane Wells Smith and Tom K. Smith. He graduated from St. Louis Country Day School, and spent a post high school prep year at Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Mass., before entering Williams College, Williamstown, Mass, in 1941.
World War II interrupted, however, and he completed his education at the U.S. Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1945. He had entered the Navy as a midshipman and enrolled in the Naval Academy's three-year accelerated program. He was commissioned ensign and was sent to the Naval Mine Warfare School, and from there was assigned to the Western Pacific. There, he participated in mine sweeping operations off the coast of Japan, particularly in waters near Kyoto, as well as in Tokyo Harbor in preparation for the occupation of Japan by the United States forces.
He served as captain of an Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper (YMS) on patrol duty off the Philippines, and was transferred from there to a weather ship, where he spent two and a half years patrolling the waters around the Solomon Isands. In 1947, he rose to the rank of lieutenant and returned to the U.S., to Washington, where he was attached to a naval security agency and worked to break Soviet codes. He was released from active duty in 1949 and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Navy reserves.
In November 1949, he married Harriot Evans O'Fallon. He also began his career as a businessman that year, at the old Union Electric Co., but his life as a civilian was fleeting. In October 1950, the Navy called him back for two years of active duty with the National Security Agency. In 1957, he was discharged from the Navy reserves - this time for good.
After his varied career in the Navy, Mr. Smith traded the adventures and dangers of military engagements for a demanding but entirely more conventional life as a St. Louis business executive. He returned to Union Electric and worked there until 1959. Then he joined the old Boatmen's Bank as assistant vice president and retired 34 years later as senior vice president of the bank's National Division.
He continued his education during his time there, studying at the American Bankers Association's Stonier Graduate School, where he wrote a thesis titled "Dollars for Diplomas." Back at home, he also took on the responsibilities of rearing a family and participating in civic life. He pursued numerous avocations as well: He was an avid fisherman and duck hunter and, befitting his service at sea, enjoyed sailing.
Judge William H. Webster, now chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council and former director of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, formed a close friendship with Mr. Smith when both of them returned to St. Louis after World War II. They, their wives and another couple took up residence in the same apartment building in Clayton, and enjoyed warm and enduring friendships. Webster said when he moved away in 1978 to take over the FBI, he left behind many good friends in St. Louis, but some were special to him. Two of those special friends were Mr. Smith and his wife, Harriot.
In 1978, William H.T. Bush came to Boatmen's Bank as president. Mr. Smith was there, in charge of the bank's corporate customers. "He became increasingly important while I was president of the bank, and was very popular with both his customers and his peers," Bush said. "In addition to being mindful of the bank's financial health and fastidious about credit, he was recognized, and respected, for responding to customers promptly and accurately." Bush said he and Mr. Smith traveled together on business and recalled his being regarded highly by his peers all over the country.
"I had a great deal of respect for him," Bush said, "and I liked him very, very much."
Mr. Smith was a member of the board and an officer of the Family and Children's Service of Greater St. Louis (now Provident Counseling) from 1958-66. Over that span he served as treasurer, first vice president and president of the board. He was secretary of the Williams College Alumni Association from 1959-61. He served as chair of the Allocations Committee for the United Way and was president of the board of KETC-TV, Channel 9, now the Nine Network.
His daughter, Catherine Smith Krane, recalled that the main focus of his charitable activity was on St. Luke's Hospital, the board of which he joined in 1960, eventually becoming its president. He was on the board at a critical moment in the hospital's history, when it moved from its old quarters on Delmar Boulevard to Woods Mill Road in Chesterfield.
"Parker was on our board and served as chair from 1968 to 1970," said Gary Olson, president and chief executive officer of St. Luke's Hospital. Mr. Smith was a member of a group that identified the property in Chesterfield the hospital occupies now. He was also active on the emeritus board, Olson said.
"He was always available for consultations, and had great business insight." Olson said he also had a great sense of humor and displayed genuine warmth. "He was willing to step up to the plate."
Olson said Mr. Smith's family also was involved with St. Luke's. His daughter, Susan, has been director of volunteer services at St. Luke's for more than 20 years. "His wife, Harriot, is also a strong supporter of the hospital," Olson said.
She also was an enthusiastic traveling companion. They were inveterate travelers and his passion for wildlife took him far afield. "If it was fur, feather or fins, he searched them out," his daughter, Catherine, said. In his retirement years, Mr. Smith and Harriot Smith traveled from South Africa to New Zealand and countless places in between, including most states of the United States of America.
Ships great and small offered special fascination for him, and he spent two years building a model of the whale ship, the "Charles W. Morgan." That ship is the world's oldest surviving merchant vessel, and is now in the collection of the Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Conn.
Besides his wife, he is survived by his children: a son, H. Parker Smith Jr. (Joan) of Philadelphia, and two daughters, Susan Smith and Catherine Krane (Peter), both of St. Louis; two sisters, Jane S. Shapleigh, St. Louis, and Celeste S. Penny, Adamsville, R.I.; and five grandchildren.
The family requests that donations be made to St. Luke's Hospital, 232 South Woods Mill Rd., Chesterfield, Mo. 63017; or to the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, 8820 Ladue Rd., 3rd Floor, St. Louis, Mo., 63124; or to Ladue Chapel, 9450 Clayton Road, St. Louis, Mo. 63124.
A memorial service will be Friday, October 21, at Ladue Chapel, at 10 a.m.