ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 TAG: 9701220041
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS
Conway Howard Smith never considered himself to be a historian. He called himself "just a hobbyist."
But the fact remains that Smith, who died Tuesday at age 89, wrote the most comprehensive history of Pulaski County published so far.
Smith wrote "The Land That Is Pulaski County," a 550-page tome with historic photos published in 1981.
Smith grew up in Pulaski and worked in his father's printing company, leaving only to serve in the Navy during World War II.
After he retired in 1972, Smith accepted an assignment from the county Library Board to research and write the book.
"I needed something to do and they wanted me to do it," he said in a 1995 interview. "And I enjoyed doing it."
It took Smith nine years of digging through thousands of pages of documents, letters and records before "The Land That Is Pulaski County" was published.
"This book is not the work of one man, but sort of a community effort," he wrote in the introduction to that book.
Smith was also proud to have filled a gap in the thin historical bibliography of Southwest Virginia. Most Virginian historians think the state ends at the Blue Ridge Mountains, he said.
Two years ago, Smith and his wife moved to St. Louis to be closer to their daughter. That is where he died Tuesday.
When he left, Pulaski Town Council passed a resolution that bade farewell to Smith and thanked him for preserving Pulaski County's history.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB