John Lewis Smith III ’63

Lew, one of the nation’s prominent health-care attorneys, died Jan. 28, 2013, of congestive heart failure at a nursing center in Clinton, Md. He had suffered a series of strokes in recent years.

He retired in 1998 from BakerHostetler, where he was a managing partner and represented doctors, hospitals, the D.C. Medical Society, National Capital Reciprocal Insurance Co. (which he helped form), and Washington-area businesses. He served on the boards of Washington Hospital Center and MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital and was a past president of the D.C. chapter of Easter Seals.

Lew, with his thousand-watt smile and outsized personality, majored in politics at Princeton, wrote a thesis on Felix Frankfurter, and belonged to Cottage. His roommates included fellow Lawrenceville alums Barbour, Bunn, Campagna, and Seckel. The son of a former chief judge of the U.S. District Court in D.C., Lew went to Georgetown Law and then clerked for E. Barrett Prettyman, a federal judge.

The class extends its sympathy to Missy, Lew’s wife of 41 years; their children, Marjorie Marr, Angelique Jacobs, Madeline Scoular, and Reilly L. Smith; his brother, Cotter Smith; sisters Madeline Lynn, Janet Garabrant, and Barbara Fennell; and 13 grandchildren.