Smith, L. Gerard (Louis Gerard), 1871-1940.

L. Gerard Smith was a business executive of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Montreal, Quebec.

Smith was born Louis W. Schmidt in New York in 1871. He was orphaned around age six and adopted into the family of Nathaniel Stone of Brooklyn, N.Y. Smith began working at clerical jobs in his early teens to help support the family. Between 1894 and 1905 he worked as a mailman. When he sought a career in business in 1905, he changed his name to disavow this last reminder of his natural father. Smith worked in the front offices of several companies that manufactured railroad supplies and, though lacking in formal education, rose rapidly, becoming general manager of the Vapor Car Heating Company. When the company formed a Canadian subsidiary, Smith was sent to Montreal as general manager at the end of 1922. He died in Montreal on March 14, 1940.

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