WILLIAM D. "BILL" SMART, SR.
JANUARY 26, 1927- MARCH 21, 2007

Bill Smart was born January 26, 1927 in Waukegan, Ill. where he graduated from grade school and high school. He served in the U.S. Army 1945 to 1947 and took basic infantry training before spending the better part of 1946 in Belgium and France as a 19-year-old staff sergeant in the Army Medical Corps.

Smart joined Abbott Laboratories Engineering Department while on terminal leave from the Army. His Abbott career spanned a 40-year period from 1947 to 1987 when he retired. During this time while on leave from Abbott he received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Northwestern University and a M.S. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois.

Bill returned to Abbott in 1953 as a Bench Chemist in the Chemical Development Department and several years later was promoted to Department Manager. In 1964 he earned the MBA degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business after six years of night school and a 40- mile once-a-week commute from Waukegan to downtown Chicago.

Smart became Director of Chemical and Fermentation Manufacturing for Abbott in 1967 and was named Vice President of Manufacturing in the Hospital Products Division (HPD) two years later. He also served as Vice President of Marketing in HPD before becoming Vice President and General Manager of the Abbott Agriculture and Veterinary Products Division. He was named Corporate Vice President of Abbott and President of the Ross Laboratories Division in 1980, the position he held until retirement in 1987.

Bill met Mary Jean Ekdahl of Chicago when she was a student at the University of Illinois and he was an Assistant Instructor, and they were married in 1953. Bill helped raise their five children and a niece and nephew of Mary who joined the family after the death of their parents in a commercial plane crash in the Andes Mountains of Peru in 1962.

William D. Smart is survived by his wife of 53 years, Mary; daughters Patricia (Chicago), Rebecca (Drew Deutsch, M.D. of Gig Harbor, Wash.) and Deborah (Gary Wren of Columbus, Ohio); sons Robert (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and William, Jr. (Diane of Western Springs, Ill.; niece Ellen (Steve Okonsky of Silver Springs, Md.) and nephew Eric Uram (Deborah of Madison, Wisconsin). His nine grandchildren include Hanna and Molly Deutsch; Nicholas, Matthew and Katherine Wren; Alanna and Alexander Smart; Franklin Okonsky and Jeremy Uram.

Bill was preceded in death in 2005 by his twin brother, Judge Robert J. Smart, who was his only sibling.

Smart was active in civil affairs in Waukegan where he served as President of the Public School Board, President of the 410-bed community-owned hospital and was a savings and loan association board member. He was a Senior Warden and long time Treasurer of Christ Episcopal Church as well as an adult acolyte. He also was a key founder of a highly successful junior college serving the northeast corner of Illinois.

In Columbus, Bill was Chairman of the Trustees of Columbus State Community College, Vice President of the United Way, a member of the Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission, on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce, Neighborhood Community House, Children's Hospital Research Foundation and Buckeye Boys Ranch.

In Pensacola, Bill served on many boards and was an officer of several of them including FavorHouse, the Pensacola Junior College Foundation, Tiger Bay, Gulf Coast Economics Club, Gulf Breeze Rotary and South Santa Rosa Utilities. Other board memberships included First American Bank and Gulf Breeze Hospital. He was an active member of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church, UWF College of Business Advisory Council, Pensacola Section of the American Chemical Society and the Science Advisory Council of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Bill also served for over 11 years on the board of directors of Martek Biosciences Corporation (Columbus, Md.).

Bill and Mary Smart were named outstanding Philanthropists for Northwest Florida in 2003.

A memorial service was held on Saturday, March 31, at St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in Gulf Breeze.

Contributions in his name may be made to St. Francis Episcopal Church, 1 St. Francis Drive, Gulf Breeze, FL32561 or FavorHouse of Northwest Florida, 2001 Blount Street, Pensacola, FL32501.

HARPER-MORRIS MEMORIAL CHAPEL is in charge of arrangements.