Cornelius Cole Smith, Jr.
Military Person
1913 – 2004
Who was Cornelius Cole Smith, Jr.?
Dr. Cornelius Cole "Corney" Smith, Jr. was an American author, military historian, illustrator and painter. A survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was an officer in the United States Marines during World War II and retired at the rank of Colonel. Smith's father, Medal of Honor recipient Cornelius Cole Smith, Sr., also served as a colonel in the Philippines during the Philippine Insurrection and Moro rebellion.
After leaving military service in 1947, he held a number of important positions including his employment as an architect for the Arabian-American Oil Company and a museum curator for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. After receiving his MA and Ph.D. degrees in history at Claremont Graduate School, he spent the 1950s as chief of the Historical Division for the 15th Air Force, Strategic Air Command.
He began his writing career relatively late in life, at age 57, and was a prolific author of books on military history and the American frontier of the Southwestern United States. In addition to his own father's biography, Don't Settle for Second: Life and Times of Cornelius C. Smith, he also authored biographies on Arizona frontiersman William Sanders Oury and Russian soldier-of-fortune Emilio Kosterlitzky. His book A Southwestern Vocabulary: The Words They Used detailed over 500 terms of slang of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico and is widely cited by historians of the "Old West".
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- Born
- Jul 18, 1913
Fort Huachuca - Nationality
- United States of America
- Died
- Apr 27, 2004
Riverside - Resting place
- Evergreen Cemetery
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
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