Al Smith

Alfred Emanuel Smith, Jr. (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944), usually as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York four times and was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1928. He was a leader of the Progressive Movement and was noted for making a wide range of reforms as governor in the 1920s. He was also linked to Tammany Hall, a political machine that controlled Manhattan politics, and was a strong opponent of Prohibition.

Smith was the first Catholic to run for president and attracted many thousands of ethnic voters. However he was especially unpopular among Southern Baptists and German Lutherans, who feared that the pope would dictate his policies. During a time of national prosperity, Smith lost in a landslide to the Republican candidate, Herbert Hoover. Smith tried for the 1932 nomination, but was defeated by his former ally Franklin D. Roosevelt. Smith entered business in New York City and became an increasingly-vocal opponent of Roosevelt's New Deal. However, he openly supported Roosevelt's efforts to help the Allies during World War II.

In 1939, he was appointed a Papal Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape. One of the highest honors that the papacy that was given to a layman (someone who is not part of the clergy), it is now styled a Gentlemen of His Holiness.

Smith support died at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital on October 4, 1944 of a heart attack, at the age of 70, broken-hearted over the death of his wife from cancer five months earlier. He is interred at Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York City.^[1]

Alfred Smith is the namesake of buildings, schools, a playground, a fireboat, a park, a youth center, a military camp, and a philanthropic foundation.

• Alfred E. Smith Building, a 1928 skyscraper in Albany, New York
• Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses, a public housing development in Lower Manhattan near his birthplace
• PS 1 Alfred E. Smith School, a school in Manhattan's Chinatown
• PS 163 Alfred E. Smith School, a school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan
• Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the South Bronx
• Governor Alfred E. Smith Park, a playground in the Two Bridges neighborhood in Manhattan, near his birthplace
• Governor Alfred E. Smith, a former front line and current reserve fireboat in the New York City Fire Department fleet
• Governor Alfred E. Smith Sunken Meadow State Park, a state park on Long Island
• Alfred E. Smith Recreation Center, a youth activity center in Two Bridges, Manhattan.
• Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a fundraiser held for Catholic Charities and a stop on the presidential campaign trail
• Smith Hall, a residence hall at Hinman College, Binghamton University
• Camp Smith, a state-owned military installation of the New York Army National Guard in Cortlandt Manor near Peekskill, New York, about 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City, at the northern border of Westchester County, with an area of 1,900 acres (770 ha).
• Alfred E. Smith IV, a great-grandson of Smith who was a member of the New York Stock Exchange, philanthropist, and chairman of the Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center
• Big Hearted Al candy bar, named after Smith by a supporter who owned a candy factory