Niceville Family Honors Late Dr. H. Kirby Smith With Nursing Scholarship

03/21/2005

There is a special fondness when Col. (ret.) H. Kirby Smith reminisces about his late father, Dr. C. Kirby Smith, and how he helped train student nurses in Miami a half century ago.

"My dad was one of nine children born on a poor farm in Holly Hill, South Carolina," recalled Smith. "So, the fact that he got through World War I and got to college, let alone medical school back then, was pretty darn remarkable when you think about it."

His admiration of his surgeon/obstetrician father has led Kirby and Dorothy Smith of Niceville to make a major gift of appreciated stock that will fund the Dr. C. Kirby Smith, M.D. Nursing Scholarship Endowment through the Okaloosa-Walton College Foundation.

"I've read and seen what the college has done to train more nurses for our community and I thought this would be a great way to honor my dad who taught the OG-GYN class at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami to student nurses in the 1940s," said Smith, who has now funded three endowed scholarships at the college.

Something of a history buff, Smith shared how his physician father graduated from the Medical College of South Carolina and then interned in New York City for a couple of years.

"That's where he met my mother, Leona, when she was acting on stage. I used to kid that it was probably burlesque, because remember this was the roaring 20s," chuckled Smith, as he noted details of his father's life from a copy of the "National Cyclopedia of American Biography" that his parents then moved to Miami where his father became one of the first obstetrical specialists in Miami.

In the book, it further stated, "Smith gave surgical care free of charge to many of the poor in the area, especially in the Negro community." That, says his son, "shows how dad remembered his own roots and speaks volumes about what kind of man he was."

Dr. Bob Richburg, OWC President, said, "The generosity of Kirby and Dorothy Smith speaks also volumes about the kind of people they are -- to come forward again with this contribution to start their third scholarship."

"The college is grateful for the opportunity to help you honor and remember a man who was a medical pioneer for his time," said Richburg. "That Dr. C. Kirby Smith taught nursing student makes his scholarship endowment an even more endearing tribute. We express our gratitude to the Smith family for the scholarship that will allow the tradition to carry on at O-W."

At least Col. Smith hopes so, since he failed to follow in the footsteps of both his doctor father and grandfather. "Yes, my grandfather, Dr. Emil Washington Howard, was a surgeon too and received some of his training at the Mayo Clinic," explained Smith. "He was what they called a contract physician" in World War I and was stationed in the Philippines in the medical corps during World War II. He was a fine gentleman and always took me bird hunting out in Oregon."

So, why not a third generation of medical doctors in the family? "Oh, I suppose I could have gotten into medical school, but I was fascinated by the law," said Smith, whose choice led to career in the Air Force as a Judge Advocate General; a career that brought him to Eglin and ultimately to OWC.