| Joseph Smith Jr. |
Residential Developer in D.C., Md., Del.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Joseph Smith Jr., 81, who owned and operated companies that did residential
development and restorations, died April 27 at Casey House hospice in Rockville.
He had complications from Alzheimer's disease and a brain aneurysm.
Smith Development, which focused on home construction, operated from the late
1950s to the early 1970s. The company was singled out by a building industry
trade group in 1963 for a colonial-style home it designed in Bethesda's Deerfield
subdivision.
Mr. Smith also built oceanfront condominiums in Bethany Beach, Del., as well as
his family beach house there, which was modeled after an old Coast Guard station
in Fenwick Island, Del.
Starting in the early 1970s, he spent about 20 years as owner and operator of
Federal City Corp., which did inner-city restorations in Washington.
Mr. Smith, a Chevy Chase resident, was a native Washingtonian and a 1946 graduate of Woodrow Wilson High
School. After brief Navy service, he attended the University of Virginia and began working with the Frank S. Phillips real
estate company.
He was a lifetime member of Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase.
His marriage to Barbara Bolton Smith ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Josephine Hall Kelly-Smith of Chevy Chase, whom he married in 1993; four children from his
first marriage, Benjamin B. Smith of Bethany Beach, Lesley K. Smith of Reston, Caroline Trevino of Charlotte and Owen
M. Smith of Ocean View, Del.; three stepchildren, Clyde V. Kelly III of Grasonville, Md., Josephine S. Kelly of Prince
Frederick and Susanne K. Dibert of Midlothian, Va.; and nine grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein
