Steve Smith

A brief biography of Steve Smith

I was an army brat and moved 13 times as a boy.  When my wife, Elizabeth, and I moved into our current house, it was our 23d move together in our 40 years of marriage!  I'm finally ready to settle down.  We moved to Salt Lake City 2 years ago when our son and his wife had our first grandchild.  We now have 2 granddaughters here in Salt Lake and our own daughter and her husband live near San Francisco, Ca.

I graduated from West Point and spent 27 years in the army- mostly in the infantry, airborne, and special forces.  Among other assignments, I commanded an infantry/armor battalion task force in Desert Storm; I was simultaneously the Chief of Staff of the Army's Big Red One (1st Infantry Div) and NATO forces in northern Bosnia; and I concluded my service as the Senior Military Asst to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.  I then went into government in the Senior Executive Service where I served as an Associate Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (oversees all US International broadcasting, eg, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, etc) and later as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Patent and Trademark Office.  I retired in 2010. 

My musical 'career' began (and ended for a long while!) with one year in the West Point Glee Club.  As I retired from the Army, we moved to an 'Over 55' community in Virginia where I joined a men's chorus for about 9 years.  We sang some Barbershop but mostly music of various genres accompanied by piano.  I recently met Jim Gallagher at a service academy breakfast and he invited me to visit the Beehive Statesmen rehearsal.