Monroe and Isabel Smith

Monroe was a former Boy Scout executive and Isabel an art teacher when the young couple founded the hostels in Northfield, Massachusetts.

After a promising start, Youth Argosy went bankrupt in 1951, largely due to a new Civil Aeronautics Board regulation aimed at small charter groups.

Several works included Isabel's illustrations, including Early Poems of John Milton (1929), several issues of John Martin's Book, and the AYH Knapsack (1936-1948), a series of booklets designating routes and locations of prominent American Youth Hostels.

During a scout trip to Europe, Monroe and Isabel met Richard Schirrmann and learned about his German Hostelling Organization.

Monroe later began to teach at Deerfield Beach Junior High School in 1958.