Christopher Blanton (soon to become “Smitty”) Smith was sent to the best schools. Only the best. Sidwell Friends in Washington D.C. was responsible for his foundation/early schooling, then St. Bernards’s in New York City. Here he met a very close, kind and influential friend, Lansing. They had many unsupervised adventures in NYC! (More to come…)

Smitty would soon march off to his formative years attending six forms at The Hill School in Pottstown, PA. (For those of us whose blood isn’t quite that shade of blue, first form essentially was 7th grade, so you’d have 6 years of schooling to graduate.) Here, at The Hill, he would be bullied, learn to be tougher than his father, and learn to be true to himself and his close friends. He was tortured by several older boys and even by boys in his class. He was accused of abuse when he saved a younger boy from a fight. The stories are just like the ones you’ve seen in the movies and may have thought, “This can’t be true.” He also became one of the best Lacrosse goalies in the nation! Though “Randy” refused to let him take a Lacrosse scholarship at the University of Virginia, he would later play for SMU, TCU, Team Texas, Team Canada, in the New Orleans tournament, in the Vail tournament, and he coached youth Lacrosse while he worked for Microsoft before he got sick. He always gave more of himself than anyone could imagine. I still have jerseys, sticks and helmets from his old Lacrosse days and I cherish them.

Smitty’s adopted father “Randy,” owner of Train-Smith Counsel (an investment counseling firm for very wealthy clients) and eventually his own firm Capital Counsel, did a lot of business in Texas. So he decided to go to school in Texas to build a stronger relationship with his Father. OK. I’m sorry. He did his research. He knew the prettiest girls were in Texas (and so was some of his family), so he ventured forth to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. After one year (and an interesting confrontation with the police) he had to leave for Australia (yes, HAD to leave the country) while things were straightened out here. He spent several months working at Haddon Rigg Merino Stud sheep ranch in New South Wales, Australia, and it changed his life… He was going to be a cowboy, baby!

Upon returning to the United States – being allowed back in the country apparently, the details are a bit vague – Smitty chose Texas Christian University’s Ranch Management program. He was going to be a professional cowboy.

There used to be a photo from these Australian adventures in “Randy’s” office: Smitty holding up the severed head of a bull by the horns. Apparently Billy Crystal was a client of “Randy’s,” and he spotted this photo and said something along the lines of, “Your son lived the life we portrayed in City Slickers!”