By Jonathan Munson Monday, December 7 2009

SAN ANTONIO: Dr Joshua A Smith left his home in Trinidad, West Indies, to attend college in the United States in 1947; and, despite the racial conditions of the times, became one of this city’s first African American surgeons.

He later became a proponent of civil rights in his professional circle and beyond, and it was important to him to quietly observe Barack Obama elected president more than a year ago, “to know that it had come to that point in his lifetime,” his wife, Lorado Fay Smith, said.

Smith, diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2001, battled his deterioration until he died last Thursday at home. He was 84. “He was the first one out of his family to move this way,” his wife said. “Others came after him because he blazed a trail from Trinidad.”

When Smith arrived in the United States, he attended Oakwood College in Alabama, Andrews University in Michigan and Loma Linda University in California, where he received his doctor of medicine degree in 1955.

From there, he joined the US Army and travelled the states as a medical resident.

Smith attained the rank of major during a ten-year military career before coming to San Antonio to start his own practice in the mid-1960s.

His first office was in a duplex on Houston Street, where he worked on one side and lived in the other.

“I remember those crisp white shirts and shiny shoes, like a Marcus Welby-type. He was extremely professional,” his daughter, Dr Stephanie Holloman, said. His son also became a doctor.

It was during the early 1970s that Smith became outspoken about civil rights after hearing and reacting to the casual use of a racial slur among his professional colleagues, Lorado Fay Smith said.

“There was an apology and resolution,” she recalled. “He fought for what was right.”

Smith unsuccessfully ran to represent District 2 on City Council in the 1980s. Despite the loss, he remained active in politics, supporting candidates at the state and national levels.

Courtesy San Antonio Express