Stu Smith died June 18, 2008, in Maryland, after a brief illness. He was 78 and still working full time at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
Stu was born in New York City and raised in Kenilworth, Ill. He attended Lawrenceville and Princeton before Army service in West Germany. He began his professional career as a journalist and worked 14 years at The Baltimore Sun. In 1965, the Sun sent him to Bonn to cover Germany and Eastern Europe. For his coverage of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
At the Justice Department, Stu spent 30 years in tireless service as a public-affairs officer and labor-union leader, including 26 years as president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 2830. At his memorial service, he was honored by three current and former assistant attorneys general and others as a skilled professional who believed government service to be a noble undertaking, and as a fearless fighter for employees’ rights.
He leaves his wife of 36 years, Dita, a journalist; four children, Cornelia Haggart, Melanie Smith, and (from his first marriage) Stuart Seaborne Smith and Bjarne Smith; and two grandchildren.