Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Geoffrey Story SMITH
Geoffrey S. Smith, retired president and chairman of the Girard Trust Co. who was one of the civic activists who spearheaded the revitalization of Philadelphia in the 1950s, died yesterday. He was 89 and lived in Roxborough.
Smith was president of Girard from 1948 to 1959, when he was named board chairman, a position he held until 1966. Girard Trust is now Mellon Bank.
When Philadelphia took its great leap forward in urban and political renewal, Smith had long established his leadership credentials in a number of fields and was tapped for an array of key civic jobs. From 1951 he was a director of the Greater Philadelphia Movement and in 1967 was appointed a commissioner of the Delaware River Port Authority.
From an old Philadelphia family, he was the son of Edward B. Smith, founder of the investment firm of Smith, Barney & Co. He was a graduate of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Smith practiced law for 23 years with the firm of Drinker, Biddle & Reath. In 1932 he helped launch the firm of Dechert, Bok and Smith with three partners and two law clerks. The firm is today Dechert, Price and Rhoads.
In 1940, as the threat of war loomed, Smith moved to Washington, D.C., and served as associate general counsel for the National Defense Commission and as assistant counsel for its successors, the Office of Production Management and the War Production Board.
In 1942, after war was declared, he was commissioned a lieutenant commander in the Navy and served in the Bureau of Aeronautics. At the end of the war he was discharged with the rank of captain and was awarded the Legion of Merit. He returned to Philadelphia as a partner in the firm of Barnes, Dechert, Price, Smith & Clark.
Smith had served on the boards of Bell Telephone Co. of Pennsylvania, Eastern Sugarloaf Coal Co., Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, National Life Insurance Co., the Philadelphia Contributorship, the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Distribution Center.
In earlier years he had also been a director of the United Fund and the Community Chest of Philadelphia. He was a trustee of the Philadelphia Award.
Survivors include his wife, the former Ingrid Dahl; three sons, Geoffrey Smith Jr., Dr. Kaighn Smith and William Smith; a daughter, Ann Bretherton; 15 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.
A memorial service has tentatively been scheduled for 2 p.m. tomorrow at St. Thomas' Church, Bethlehem Pike, Whitemarsh.
Contributions may be made to St. Paul's School, Concord, N.H.
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