News of the Society

Harold D. Smith, president of the American Society for Public Administration in 1941, whose career in government included work with municipal, state, federal, and international agencies, died suddenly of a heart attack on January 23. With his death, the country loses one of its ablest public servants, and one who had taken a leading part in developing administration as a science and as a governmental career. Mr. Smith, who at the time of his death was acting president of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, served for seven years as director of the budget. He was called to head the Budget Bureau when it was transferred from the Treasury Department to the Executive Office of the President. He built it up to meet the severe demands of the national defense emergency and the World War, putting new emphasis on its work in the fields of administrative management and the development of international organizations. Mr. Smith came to the federal service from the state of Michigan where he was budget director from 1937 to 1939. Earlier he had been director of the Michigan Municipal League and, in 1933-34, president of the American Municipal Association. Before that time he had worked with the Detroit Bureau of Governmental Research, the League of Kansas Municipalities, and the Michigan Municipal League. He held a Master's degree in public administration from the University of Michigan.