Smith, Frank Herron, 1879-1965

Dr. Frank Herron Smith was born in Illinois in 1879, son of a physician and a school teacher. After theological training, he left the U.S. in 1905 to begin his work abroad as a Methodist missionary, establishing churches in Japan and later Korea. In 1926, Frank Herron Smith and family returned to the U.S. where he served as the superintendent of the Pacific Japanese (Methodist) Mission. He was also a strong advocate for the fair treatment of Japanese American internees both while interned and once released.

Gene Smith was born 1912 in Nagasaki, Japan, to Methodist missionary parents, Frank Herron and Gertrude Smith. Smith attended U.C. Berkeley, earning a Bachelor's degree in History and a Master's degree in East Asian Studies. In 1942 Smith enlisted in the Army. With a working knowledge of the Japanese language and his personal experience living abroad in Asia, Smith had valuable wartime skills. After a year's training at the Military Intelligence Service Language School, he went on to serve as a Military Intelligence Officer, translating for and interrogating Japanese POWs. Discharged in 1946 with the rank of major, he received the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. After the war, he continued his studies and his doctoral thesis was the first scholarly history of the campus now known as California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He began teaching history at Cal Poly in 1946 and served as Social Sciences Department Head and later as founding head of the History Department.

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