Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
Howard Remus Smith
SMITH, HOWARD REMUS (1872–1962), inducted between 1920–1936
Howard Remus Smith was born in Somerset, Michigan, and earned his bachelor’s degree from Michigan Agricultural College in 1895. For four years, he taught chemistry and physics at the high school level, while in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin. He taught for one year at University of Missouri, and then from 1900 to 1912 was one of the first two faculty members hired for the University of Nebraska College of Agriculture, rising to professor and head of the animal husbandry department. Professor Smith quickly demonstrated the program’s worth when its steer, Challenger, was named Grand Champion at the 1903 ILSE. During the period of 1905–1908, H. R. Smith was on the organizing committee of the American Society of Animal Nutrition, becoming a charter member and helping to establish the organization’s first annual meetings during the International Live Stock Exposition in Chicago. He then headed the animal husbandry department at the University of Minnesota for three years.
From 1915 to 1917, Smith was livestock specialist for the First National Bank of St. Paul and the Great Northern Railroad, and in 1917, he became livestock commissioner for the National Livestock Exchange, where he helped to launch a national campaign to eradicate bovine tuberculosis, publishing some of the most significant works on the subject. H. R. Smith was president of the National Agricultural Society from 1918 to 1920. From 1934 until his retirement in 1951, he was general manager of the National Livestock Loss Prevention Board. The University of Nebraska awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1944.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 180