Smith, Howard J., 1899-1954

Real estate broker and executive secretary of Central Arizona Project Association.

Howard J. Smith, public servant and executive secretary of the Central Arizona Project Association, was born May 19, 1899 at Kingman, Arizona. He was one of ten children of Anson H. and Mary Agnes Hughes Smith, Mr. Smith being the editor of the Mohave County Miner for over 50 years. Howard Smith attended public schools in Mohave County and served overseas during World War I.

After the war he was employed at various positions in the Kingman area until he was hired as a bookkeeper at the State Treasurer's Office at Phoenix in 1923. He became assistant state treasurer in 1925 and was appointed state land commissioner by Governor George W. P. Hunt in 1930. As land commissioner he inaugurated Arizona's first land conservation program in 1935 and eventually founded the Arizona Stockman magazine.

In 1946 he was selected to become the first executive secretary of the Central Arizona Project Association, a lobbying group dedicated to developing congressional support for water reclamation projects in Arizona. Smith died suddenly on February 18, 1954 after he was stricken at the Association office at the Goodrich Building in Phoenix.