SMITH, Jack (Prescott) 1945-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born April 25, 1945, in Paris, France; died of pancreatic cancer April 7, 2004, in Greenbrea, CA. Journalist and author. Smith was an award-winning former correspondent for ABC television who also hosted cable network documentaries. After serving in Vietnam with the U.S. Army and earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, he completed a B.A. at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1971 and earned a B.A. from Oxford University in 1974. During the early 1970s, he worked as a news writer, producer, and reporter for local television stations in Pittsburgh and Chicago, joining ABC News as Paris correspondent in 1976. From 1980 until 2001, he was ABC's Washington, D.C., correspondent, and in this capacity reported on such major stories as the wars in the Middle East, the Iran-Contra affair, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He left television to become a media consultant in California, where he founded the Jack Smith Media Group. Smith earned an Overseas Press Club citation for magazine reporting in 1967 for a story about Vietnam, a subject he would also return to in special reports for ABC. In addition, Smith was the host of documentaries for the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel, and A & E, including an award-winning series about Vietnam called A Soldier's Story. Among his other awards are a Peabody and two Emmys.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, April 8, 2004, section 3, p. 9.

Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2004, p. B12.

New York Times, April 9, 2004, p. A21.

Washington Post, April 8, 2004, p. B6.