Harold Byron Smith ’31

FOLLOVING AN ILLNESS of several months, our classmate, Harold Byron Smith, died Oct. 30, 1990, in Good Shepherd Hospital, Barrington, Ill. He was 81 years old. At Princeton he roomed with Stirling Dickinson for three years and senior year with Heath Bowman.

Harold was one of our truly distinguished classmates. Upon graduation in 1931 he joined Illinois Tool Works and in five years succeeded his father as president. He held this position, as well as that of chairman and chief executive officer, until his retirement in 1982.

Harold became an alumni trustee of Princeton (196266). He held many directorships, being from time to time on die boards of international Harvester, Northern Illinois Gas Co., R.R. Donnelly & Sons, Northern Trust Co. and others.

He gave unsparingly of his time to civic and philanthropic organizations. At one time or another he was president of the Village of Barrington Hills school Board, chairman of the board of the Better Government Assn. president of the James C. King Home for Old Men, director of Children's Memorial Hospital and a trustee of the Shedd Aquarium Society and the Chicago Horticultural Society.

His hobbies included golf, fishing, sailing, and horseback riding. His wife, Pauline Hart, "Polly," predeceased him by several years. He is survived by four sons, two of whom went to Princeton: Harold Jr. '55 and David'58, as well as by ten grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. A granddaughter, Stephanie Byron Smith, was in the Class of "78.

To his sons and to all of Harold's family, the Class of 1931 extends it deepest sympathy.

The Class of I931