Mission Point Press, Traverse City, Mich.
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Watson C. Smith

Watson C.Smith is a retired professional engineer and small-business entrepreneur. Growing up in Orange, Connecticut, just after the Great Depression and during and after World War II, gave him a conservative middle-class beginning. After the family moved to the Midwest and he graduated from the University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering, he began a career in engineering while serving in the U.S Air Force. Returning to the Midwest, in Cincinnati, Ohio, he became a professional engineer and an entrepreneur. He became president of Industrial Air Inc., which manufactured large industrial air-moving equipment sold throughout the U.S. and Canada for many varied industrial applications.

After twenty-five years in the engineering and manufacturing business, he changed course, mainly for health reasons. He became a property developer and manager with properties in Cincinnati and Charlevoix, Michigan, for another twenty-five years. When finally retiring at the age of seventy-five, he joined SCORE to help others in their small-business endeavors for another five years.

He also began exploring his family’s history and became deeply involved in genealogy and the history of the families he examined. With his engineering discipline, an inquisitive mind, and detailed inspection, he researched his forebears’ lives to understand his family’s development over fifty generations. His business background brought the results together in the development of this book.

After residing in the Cincinnati suburb of Terrace Park, Ohio, for forty-five years, he now lives in Charlevoix, Michigan, with Linda, his wife of sixty-two years. They have three children and four grandchildren.