A graduate of Colgate University and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he trained in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University before returning to the Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania Hospital as Chief Medical Resident. He later went to the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, as an assistant professor of medicine and Director of the Chest Clinic. He also was in private practice in Everett, Washington. Over time, he became interested in occupational lung disease and wrote approximately 150 peer-reviewed medical articles, book chapters, and editorials on occupational lung diseases, and finally, a textbook on asbestos-related diseases. With time and experience, he was promoted to Clinical Professor of Medicine.
Dr. Smith was born in New York City and was baptized as an infant in the Episcopal Church. He became a Christian in 1972 and was rebaptized in 1975. The local Christian leadership began discipling him and took him through one year of Greek and one year of Hebrew language study. Several years later, he went on to teach basic Greek and systematic theology in a Bible school. He is involved in many Christian ethical issues as President of Physicians for Moral Responsibility, including abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, teen sexuality, and other Christian moral issues.
