Harvey Patridge Smith, Jr.

Harvey Partridge Smith, Jr., one of the founding members of the Southern Texas Archaeological Association (STAA), passed away on June 2, 1993 at the age of 75. Harvey had also been a member of the Texas Archeological Society (TAS) for 31 years. He was born in San Antonio on March 28,1918. His education included Alamo Heights High School, San Antonio Junior College, and The University of Texas, earning a BBA degree at the latter in 1940. He spent four years in the U.S. Air Force in World War II, discharged with the rank of Major. He was married to Jean Barber Smith, and they were the parents of three daughters, Rebecca, Barbara, and Lizbeth.

Harvey was a well-known architect who was both interested and involved in several areas of archaeology. The missions and buildings of Spanish Colonial San Antonio held a special fascination for him, as his father's architectural firm had been involved in the restoration of several of these structures in the 1920s and 1930s. Harvey authored articles in La Tierra on Mission Espada and the Spanish Governor's Palace. His interests further included the archaeology of south and south-central Texas, and most of all, the Trans-Pecos. He authored, and coauthored, papers on Brewster County rockshelters and their artifacts, published in the TAS Bulletin in 1962 (Vol. 33) and 1968 (Vol. 38). He was fascinated with the stratigraphy of Baker Cave and the kinds of data that can be obtained from such well preserved deposits; two brief articles appeared in La Tierra in 1976 and 1977. I recall with great fondness his participation in the fieldwork of both the 1976 and 1984 Baker Cave projects.

Harvey was involved in many ST AA activities. For example, he was a crew chief at Timmeron Rockshelter in Hays County and a paper he wrote on this experience appears in a 1975 issue of La Tierra. I also remember valued assistance that he provided at 4lBN63, the site of the 1985 field school of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). One group of hardworking students had been assigned to test an area south of the burned rock midden that I was sure contained living-area deposits (it didn't) -­and Harvey's good-humored supervision carried these students through the heat and frustration.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he was involved in archaeology and academics at UTSA. He carried out surveys for the Center for Archaeological Research, including a survey of Friedrich Park in Bexar County (Archaeological Survey Report 12, 1975) and of properties in Karnes and Live Oak Counties (ASR 64, 1978). He took part in the 1979 UTSA excavations at Colha, Belize (the Maya were another of his interests; see La Tierra 7[1], 1980). One of the first to enroll in the UTSA graduate program, he received his MA degree in 1982, with a thesis dealing with settlement patterns along a south-central Texas stream. He was later named as a Research Associate of the Center.

The Witte Museum was another focal point of Harvey's archaeological interests, and he served on its Archaeology Committee, supporting the development of the Lower Pecos exhibit and the publication of Ancient Texans, by Shafer and Zintgraff.

We will greatly miss Harvey Smith. He had many friends in the STAA and in Texas archaeology. He had a great enthusiasm for the study of both prehistoric and historic sites. Those of us in the ST AA and at UTSA who were fortunate to have worked with Harvey will long remember his sense of humor, and of optimism, key ingredients not only in life, but in any archaeological project.

Thomas R. Hester