Robert Smart, Professor, Volunteer To Numerous Causes, 77

[DGH]

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Robert Smart of West Newbury, a retired associate professor of sociology
at Boston University, died July 4, 2002, after a long bout with cancer,
at the age of 77.

Mr. Smart was born in Braintree to Scottish immigrants and was educated
in the Braintree public schools. In 1943, he enlisted in the US Army Air
Corps and served as a navigator in Italy during World War II.

After the war, he attended Boston University, earning a bachelor's
degree in 1948 and a master's in 1949, both in sociology. In 1951, Mr.
Smart returned to his alma mater as an instructor. He was promoted to
associate professor of sociology, a position he held until retiring in
1988.

Mr. Smart was highly regarded by his faculty peers, and by his students
for his accessibility and his informal, irreverent style.

For three decades Mr. Smart was involved with Boston University's prison
education program at Norfolk Prison. Before his retirement, he served a
term as an adviser to the Free University of Brussels. He was also
instrumental in the effort to form a faculty union at Boston University.

Mr. Smart was active in public life for five decades. He had served as
Town Meeting member and chaired the school committee in Braintree. He
also served several terms on the school committee in West Newbury. He
was a member of the Democratic Town Committee in both towns and was a
delegate to the state Democratic convention in 1964.

A supporter of many liberal causes, Mr. Smart had been a member of the
Braintree Fair Housing Committee, and in 1969 played a key role in the
founding of Youth Services Inc., an alternative school for troubled
youths in Braintree. He was extremely vocal on civil rights issues.

Mr. Smart volunteered to help polio victims and disabled children in the
Mary McArthur Program at Long Island Hospital and the Rutland Hospital
during the polio epidemic of the 1950s. Later in life, he volunteered at
the Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport.

He served on numerous committees of the Unitarian Universalist
Association and chaired the Parish Committee at All Souls Church in
Braintree and later at the First Religious Society Unitarian Church of
Newburyport. He loved choral music and often sang with the church choir.