Obituary of Hayden W. Smith

Hayden W. Smith passed away at home surrounded by his family on November 28, 2016 at the age of 97. Although Mr. Smith is best known as an authority on corporate charitable giving and educational philanthropy, he spent most of his early years as an accountant and commercial economist. He was born in Kansas City, MO on June 10, 1919, the third son of Frank Earl Smith and Clara Williams Smith. Following graduation from high school in 1936, he held several accounting positions, most notably with the City Auditor of Kansas City, MO. In 1942 he joined the U.S. Army and was subsequently assigned to the Adjutant General's Department. After D-Day in 1944, he was posted to the European Theater of Operations where he became a personnel-records auditor and later an instructor at the Adjutant General's Administrative School outside Paris, France. In 1947, he married the former Eleanor Overmier in New York City. He graduated from Stanford University in 1949, with great distinction (Summa Cum Laude), and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He continued at Stanford for four additional years as a graduate student, teaching assistant, and research associate. In 1953 he became a member of the faculty of the University of California at Davis as an assistant professor of economics, accounting, and statistics. In 1955, he and Mrs. Smith moved to New York where he joined the economics department of the Standard Oil Co. (N.J.) - now the Exxon Corporation. In due course, he became the company's expert on the economies of South and Southeast Asia, Oceania, and the Far East. In 1958, Mr. and Mrs. Smith became residents of Larchmont. He left the oil industry in 1968 and was appointed the Director of Research, and later Senior Vice President, of the Council for Aid to Education (CFAE), a nonprofit agency that promotes the private support of the nation's colleges and universities. In this role, he oversaw the Council's definitive yearly survey of voluntary support of education and authored numerous articles, booklets, and other publications, the most significant of which was an analysis of corporate charitable contributions as reported on corporate tax returns. During the 1980s, he served as a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, CA, and in the following years toured the country as an advisor and consultant to corporate giving programs and corporate foundations. In 1990 he retired from CFAE and joined the Program on Nonprofit Organizations at Yale University (PONPO) as a visiting scholar. While at Yale, he authored several occasional papers on corporate charitable contributions and educational philanthropy. At the time of his death, he was working on a major book, An Economic Theory of Philanthropy. Mr. Smith was active in civic affairs in Larchmont. In the early 1960s, he served as chairman of the Hommocks Study Committee, and in that role he guided the committee to its recommendation for the construction of a middle school and community swimming pool in the Hommocks area. He also served as president of the Larchmont Hills Civic Association and, in recent years, served as a member of the board of the Friends of the Larchmont Public Library. He is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Jacqueline Funt of Lewiston, NC, a son, Laurence D. Smith (Angela Becerra) of White Plains, NY, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. .