Smith, Alice Kimball

Historian, educator, and college administrator, Alice Kimball Smith (1907-2001) was born in Oak Park, Illinois. She received her A.B. from Mount Holyoke College, 1928 and Ph.D. from Yale University, 1936. She was married to Cyril Stanley Smith, metallurgist and historian of technology in 1931. While her husband worked on the development of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, 1943-1946, Smith taught in the Los Alamos High School. Subsequently in Chicago Smith was assistant editor of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 1946-1948, and lecturer in history at Roosevelt College. From 1962 to 1964, Smith was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, then assistant dean of the Institute, 1963-1970 and dean, 1970-1973. She also directed the Radcliffe Seminars, Radcliffe College, 1963-1970.

Historian, educator, and college administrator, Smith was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1907. She received her A.B. from Mount Holyoke College, 1928 and Ph.D from Yale University, 1936. She was married to Cyril Stanley Smith, metallurgist and historian of technology in 1931. While her husband worked on the development of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, 1943-1946, Smith taught in the Los Alamos High School. Subsequently in Chicago Smith was Assistant Editor of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 1946-1948, and lecturer in History at Roosevelt College. From 1962 to 1964, Smith was Fellow of the Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College, then Assistant Dean of the Institute, 1963-1970 and Dean 1970-1973. She also directed the Radcliffe Seminars, Radcliffe College, 1963-1970.

Smith, an early advocate of oral history, used oral history techniques for her books, A Peril and A Hope: the Scientists Movement in America, 1945-1947 (1965) and Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections (1980).