Where does one start to describe a man who has distinguished himself thoroughly throughout his many years as a Producer of Non Fiction Television? Should I begin at the hard luck influences of his youth: the tragedy of his father ruined by the Great Depression followed by his parents’ divorce, his mother’s remarriage and the relocation of the family? Or should I just mention the idyllic scene of his childhood spent in the west Pennsylvania countryside playing fetch with wire fox terriers? Whatever the elements and influences were, the result is these forged one of the pioneering producers of nonfiction television programming.

Roger Smith went to Yale where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in literature, philosophy, and the arts. He then went onto a three year stint in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Germany. On coming home he entered in the CBS Executive Training Program in News and Public Affairs. Upon completion of the training program, Mr. Smith went to New York City where he joined the Public Affairs Department of CBS. At CBS he was a “Roger” of all trades filling the roles of: writer, producer, associate producer, researcher, project manager, and production coordinator. He worked on the Thomas Alva Edison Award winning Let’s Take A Trip, a weekly live remote for children. He left CBS, when they disbanded their Public Affairs Department, and moved onto PBS starting at WTTW in Chicago. Here his work as executive producer on Facet, a weekly one-hour prime-time arts series, earned two Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Awards. He stayed in Chicago a year. He moved back to New York, landing a job at WNET. He produced Newsfront, a daily one-hour prime-time live news show. After a year or so he moved to WGBH Boston where he would spend the next 9 years. Several programs that Smith worked on at WGBH have won recognition. The Captioned French Chef, was the first television program captioned for the hearing impaired, and it led to federal funding for the National Caption Center at WGBH. What’s My Thing? earned the prestigious Ohio State Award. A Part of Yourself, the 1972 motivational film about organ transplant, was recognized with a Certificate from the American Medical Association. He worked on Nova during its first years. During his tenure Nova earned the George Foster Peabody Award. Other programs with which Smith was associated won the Cine Golden Eagle Award, and the First Prize in the Rehabilitation Film Festival. Smith left WGBH in 1977.

The programs he has been affiliated with number over 500.  Since leaving WGBH he has served as consultant on a variety of projects. He is the president of his own production consulting firm, the Production House, Inc. He wrote Public Media and Community Dialogue, a handbook for the Association of Junior Leagues, and he has taught courses in film analysis at the University of Massachusetts and children’s television at Grahm Junior College. He has also been guest lecturer on television at Boston University, Emerson College, and Harvard University.

Roger P. Smith is the author of The Other Face of Public Television, which shines a light on the veteran producer’s point of view that public TV is an art form whose potential has been repeatedly squelched by lawmakers and business executives and that political correctness is a major obstacle to innovative programming.

For more than 20 years Mr. Smith has called the California Desert his home. He has settled down considerably compared to his earlier days, when he called: New York, Paris, Rome, London, Cairo, Chicago, and Boston home. He still enjoys traveling the world, even when he is home he explores the globe virtually via his appetite for gourmet cooking and interest in researching Old and Early Middle Kingdom Egyptology. He still has a soft spot for canines, especially old English sheep dogs. Another of Mr. Smith’s pastimes, horticulture, (gardening), allows him to get his hands dirty.

Mr. Roger P. Smith can be found on the Madison Who’s Who Directory, where he is looking forward to networking with you.