Hoxie Harrison Smith Foundation

After I got back [from the war], I was approached by the directors of the Hoxie Harrison Smith Foundation. They wanted me to become a director of the foundation. I said, ‘Nut oh! Not way! I’m not going to get involved in that kind of thing!’ And then I realized the foundation has money and they distribute money. I’m a director of the AMERIKIDS. Maybe I should reconsider this. I called them up and said ‘I’ve thought it over. If that position is still open, I’ll take it!’ ‘Yeah, okay’. So I went in and I got grants for the AMERIKIDS, and for other people as well, but my principal role during those years was to get money for the AMERIKIDS. Its all turned around now, but at that time, it was a move I could make.

The first person I met on the Board of Directors was Bob Strayer. Bob Strayer, Colonel, 101^st Airborne Infantry. 101^st Airborne. Dropped behind enemy lines on D-Day. And he dropped enemy lines in Holland. We went across Europe together, parallel. We were not in the same unit, but we went across together. And as we compared notes, we were at the same place at the same time as we went across. We got out in the middle of Germany, he went South to Berchtesgaden. And I went west and joined up with the Russians. Uh, during the time that he and I were on the Board of Directors of the Hoxie Harrison Smith Foundation, we could pretty much control the way things went. We were two senior officers, we were ones with more military experience then anybody else. There were several, and they were old and should’ve retired long ago, heh heh. So we were able to get money for the AMERIKIDS with regularity.