Smith, Palmer, 1922-2004.

Palmer Smith (1922-2004) was a Seattle attorney and civic activist with a special interest in the problems of inner city schools.

Smith grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, worked in Naval intelligence and earned a B.S. and a law degree from Harvard University. He moved to Seattle in 1953 and practiced law for over forty years. From 1967 to 1968, he taught a course at Garfield High School titled "Science For Living." The class was an experimental one designed for students who had been expelled from school or were at risk of dropping out. From 1968 to 1970, he was a visiting fellow at Battelle Seattle Research Center. While at Battelle, he undertook the development of the Seattle Urban Academy (sometimes called the Urban Academy). In 1972, Smith incorporated the Seattle Urban Academy as a non-profit corporation, but the school never opened. Smith also was a Steering Committee member and attorney for the Coalition for Quality Integrated Education, a citizen group which assisted with transfer programs in the Seattle Public Schools in the 1970s. He was active in other groups concerned with public education, civil rights and good government, including the organization that would become known as Washington Citizens for Abortion Reform. As the group's attorney, he drafted the first abortion-rights legislation in Washington State.