Dr. Walter L. Smith

Dr. Walter Smith was born in Tampa, Florida and grew up in Cairo, Georgia and Harlem. He went from being a high-school dropout at age sixteen to receiving his GED at twenty-three, his Associates Degree at Gibbs Junior College (where he served as class president), his Bachelors and Masters Degree from the Florida A&M University, and his PhD in Higher Education at the Florida State University. In over four decades of his career in education, government, and private and professional organizations, he has developed the technical education curriculum for the Saturn V program (1965), served as Provost of Hillsborough Community College, was the president of Roxbury Community College, and was the president of the Florida A&M University.

As president of the Florida A&M University, he spearheaded the development of the School of Allied Health, the School of General Studies, the School of Journalism, and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. In addition, Dr. Smith helped create Florida A&M's first doctorate program and graduate programs in Business, Architecture, and Industrial Arts. Following his term, he moved on to Africa where he was appointed to be the International Team Leader for Higher Education in the Republic of South Africa by the United States Agency for International Development. He built South Africa's first American based community college (Funda) and served as a United States monitor for the 1994 Democratic election in the country as well.

Dr. Smith is also an author, with the book The Magnificent Twelve: Florida's Black Junior Colleges highlighting the history of Florida's Black Junior Colleges, which were part of the development of the twenty-eight community colleges that are currently in the state of Florida. The publication is in the Congressional Record of the U.S. Congress and is the State of Florida's source for the Commemorative Reclamation Program for the twelve Black colleges.

Since retiring, Dr. Smith developed the library where he resides to help out the community.

Dr. Smith has three sons (John, Andre, and Walter II) and one daughter (Salesia Smith Gordon).