GREENSBURG, PA, January 26, 2018 -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Helene Catherine Smith with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Smith celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
An award-winning playwright and novelist Ms. Smith has authored 50 historical works during her time, including six produced plays. Her most recent historical book is titled "Murrysville and Export." Some of her other historic books have included "A Guidebook to Historical Western Pennsylvania," "Sallie Civil War Dog," and "Whisky Rebellion." She is also the owner and president of MacDonald & Sward Publishing Company. Ms. Smith showed artistic talent early, and won a national doll contest in high school sponsored by Seventeen Magazine. It was the only boy doll in the contest, a Dennis the Menace type doll with a slingshot, and was shown on the Ed Sullivan Show.
A freelance artist, musician, writer, and talented fife player for more than 35 years, Ms. Smith played with the 11th Pennsylvania Regiment Company I, and has continued to play with the Commonwealth Ancient Band of Music since 1980. Locally, she has served as the co-director for the historical survey of light rail transit and as the Pittsburgh co-director of the historical site survey for Westmoreland County. She has served as a representative for the minority inspector of Westmoreland County since 1987. Throughout the years, Ms. Smith has written on various topics such as The Sun Dance, a case history of pesticide poisoning on the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation focusing on the rights of First Native Americans and African-Americans. She also spent time as a junior volunteer for the first paralegal magazine to help American Indians. A certified historian, she has also been serving as the personal researcher for Edger J. Kaufman Jr., conducting background history of his property, "Falling Water," Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece.
Ms. Smith was a 1997 nominee for the Jefferson Award for her work among indigenous peoples within their sovereign nations, and was later nominated for the 2008 Arthur St. Clair Award from Westmoreland County Historical Society. She is an honorary life member on the organization's board of directors since 1995. She received a book prize for her work on Harriet Tubman in "Aramenta", as well as a merit certificate for the drama "A Case of Honor about Tubman" from the American Screen Writers Association and Writer's Digest. Ms. Smith has also given her time as a Brownie and Girl Scout leader, and appeared on Pittsburgh's KDKA to reach out to entrepreneurs on the subject of recycling and upcycling. In recent years, she has been a blogger for international peace, and has marched in the Great World Peace March and other events, including parades for Veteran's Day. Ms. Smith has been staunchly anti-war, and has written essays for Veterans Against Wars. At the behest of her friend and nuclear physicist Bill Beyer, Ms. Smith co-wrote the drama "H-Bomb, Fission Fusion Fission" about Dr. Beyer's colleague Stanislaw Ulam, one of the designers of the nuclear device. Ms. Smith joined Vice President Al Gore on his campaign against public smoking, and has worked on numerous projects on the behalf of Native Americans.
Ms. Smith has been married to Wayne E. Smith Jr. since 1957, with whom she has had five children.