A survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was an officer in the United States Marines during World War II and retired at the rank of colonel.

After leaving military service in 1947, he held a number of important positions including his employment as an architect for the Arabian-American Oil Company and a museum curator for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

He began his writing career relatively late in life, at age 57, and was a prolific author of books on military history and the American frontier of the Southwestern United States.

His book A Southwestern Vocabulary: The Words They Used (1984) detailed over 500 terms of slang of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico and is widely cited by historians of the "Old West".

The older brother, Graham, frequently took horseback rides around the military reservation with a young officer, Lieutenant Marcus E. Jones, and me, and on occasions practiced polo with us.

As "sharp blasts" began shaking the building, the three men ran out onto the lanai where they witnessed the first Japanese naval planes diving on Ford Island.

[7] He later said, while standing among Marines firing at enemy planes flying over the Navy Yard, that "every Leatherneck's face wore a look of shame"; "Here we are with our pants down and the striking force of our Pacific Fleet is settling on the bottom of East Loch, Pearl Harbor.

"[8] He wrote a personal account of the battle, based on his own wartime diary, for the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, "...A Hell of a Christmas," (December 1968) years later.

Smith began contributing to various historical publications, such as Montana: The Magazine of Western History, in the early-1960s[9] and wrote his first book, Recuerdos de San Antonio: Four Memorable Days in the City of the Alamo, in 1964.

His last such book, A Southwestern Vocabulary: The Words They Used (1984), described in detail the origins, meanings, and use of over 500 terms of historical slang of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.

His first effort was All Saints Episcopal Parish, Riverside, California: The First 100 Years, A Brief History (1984) and continued with Remembrance of Things Past (1991) and Corney's Mission Inn (1993).

[3] In his retirement years, he became known in the local community as a modern-day "renaissance man", focusing on sculptures and artwork, and had numerous one-man shows of his paintings and wood carvings.