Profile: Lloyd M. Smith

It almost happened: Lloyd M. Smith, businessman, instead of Dr. Lloyd M. Smith, active AOCS member and a leading food scientist at the University of California, Davis. But, as Dr. Smith explained, attending the Garbut t Business College in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, after his graduation from high school was a decision dictated by the economy rather than personal interest. "I was interested (in business) in the sense that you have to remember we were in a depression," he explained. "When I got out of high school, the work prospects weren ' t very good." After graduating from the business school, he, like most of the other alums, spent his t ime looking for jobs and working in the school 's model office at no salary to obtain work experience. After he took various civil service exams, he joined the Canadian Federal Grading Service as a lab assistant in 1937. His new job, which involved the grading and analysis of but ter and cheese for expor t and domestic consumption, renewed an interest in agriculture which had been sparked in his boyhood by his father 's millwright business. The job also gave him the impetus to pursue a degree in agriculture, with a specialty in dairy science, from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. "I found out that in order to progress in the field, you really needed a degree," he said. After obtaining his B.S. degree and three years of overseas service in the Royal Canadian Arti l lery during World War II, he took advantage of Canada's GI bill which offered financial assistance to veterans at tending college, and began work on his master 's degree. In addit ion to his studies, he held a full-time position as lecturer, teaching bachelor 's and master 's level courses, plus a six-month diploma course to European refugees. "The master 's degree was a more difficult thing to get at that time in Canada than in the U.S. because Canada had no Ph.D. program," he said. " I t took me three years to earn a master 's degree under those circumstances. The days weren ' t long enough." During this time, Dr. Smith was also busy with a new marriage. He met his wife-to-be, Edythe C. Dodds, through mutual friends and they married in 1948. After receiving the M.S. degree, he decided in 1949 to work toward a Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry. "The union ticket for academic employment then, as i t is now, was a Ph.D.," Dr. Smith said. Since he could not obtain a Ph.D. in Canada, he took the first of several leaves of absence from the University of Alberta to at tend the University of California, Davis. What followed was a three-year period in which he and his wife moved from Alberta to California 10 times in order to fulfill a teaching commitment at the University of Alberta. The result, besides plenty of traveling, was a doctoral thesis researched at the University of California and writ ten at the University of Alberta. After receiving the degree in 1953, Dr. Smith returned to the University of Alberta. Then, in 1954 he accepted a posit ion as assistant professor in the Depar tment of Dairy Industry at the University of California. Although he and his wife always liked California, he admit ted they missed Canada to a certain extent. But at the time the decision to move to the U.S. was made, he said, academic benefits, salaries and opportuni t ies were bet ter in the U.S. than in Canada. However, he added, Canadian education opportunities now are equal or even bet ter than those in the U.S. With a home in California, much of Dr. Smith 's free t ime is spent outdoors. In addi t ion to riding his bike daily to the university, "and home for lunch," he adds, he and Edythe are frequent swimmers ei ther at the University pool or at the homes of neighbors. Their home is si tuated on a corner lot, which means "p len ty of lawn to look after," he said, plus space for a small garden, grapes, and a few nectarine, lemon and orange trees. When they are not outdoors, they also spend some of