Charles Emil Smith (né Schmidoff; March 28, 1901 – December 30, 1995) was a real estate developer and philanthropist in the

Washington Metropolitan Area The Washington metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the National Capital Region, is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of the states of Maryland, Virg ...

Biography

Smith (born Schmidoff), was born in Lipnick,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

on March 28, 1901 to an Orthodox

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

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, the son of Sadie and Reuven Schmidoff. He immigrated to

Brownsville, Brooklyn Brownsville is a residential neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is generally bordered by Crown Heights to the northwest; Bedford–Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills to the north; East New York to the east; Canarsi ...

in 1911 speaking only Yiddish upon his arrival. He started as a developer in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, but lost everything in the Great Depression. He moved to

Rockville, MD Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community in ...

where he first developed apartments and later office buildings. He founded the

Charles E. Smith Co. Archstone was a real estate investment trust that invested in apartments. In 2007, the company was acquired by Tishman Speyer and Lehman Brothers and, in 2013, the company's assets were acquired by Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities ...

and developed the Crystal City area of

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county i ...

. He retired in 1967 and turned to philanthropy.

Philanthropy

He planned a complex in Rockville for Jewish agencies including the Hebrew Home for the Aged, the Jewish Social Service Agency and the

Jewish Community Center A Jewish Community Center or a Jewish Community Centre (JCC) is a general recreational, social, and fraternal organization serving the Jewish community in a number of cities. JCCs promote Jewish culture and heritage through holiday celebrations, ...

. He was a

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presi ...

(GWU) from 1967 to 1976 as well as Chairman of the Committee on University Development. The

Charles E. Smith Athletic Center The Charles E. Smith Center is a 5,000-seat multipurpose arena in the United States' capital, Washington, D.C. Opened on November 17, 1975, it is home to the George Washington University Colonials men's and women's basketball teams, as well as ...

at George Washington University is named in his honor. He played a key role in developing GW's branch campus in

Loudoun County, Virginia Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun C ...

. His contributions to Jewish philanthropy include: *

Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School The Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, often referred to as CESJDS or JDS, is a private, pluralistic Jewish JK-12 school located in two campuses in North Bethesda ( Rockville postal address), Maryland, United States.

* Charles E. Smith Life Communities *

Hartman High School Hartman High School (officially Charles E. Smith High School for Boys) is an Orthodox Jewish religious high school in Jerusalem. History The school, affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute, is located in Jerusalem's German Colony. It has ...

- Charles E. Smith High School for Boys * Charles E. Smith Family and Prof. Joel Elkes Laboratory for Collaborative Research in Psychobiology * Charles E. Smith chair in Judaic studies at GWU Smith held honorary doctorates from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Jewish Theological Seminary and

. In 1997 he was posthumously awarded an

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from the

National Building Museum The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit i ...

alongside other community developers of Washington, D.C., including

Morris Cafritz Morris Cafritz ( - June 13, 1964) was a Washington, D.C. real estate developer, and philanthropist. As CEO of the Cafritz Company, he was Washington, D.C.'s largest private developer from the late 1920's to the early 1960's. Early life and educa ...

and Charles A. Horsky.

Personal life

Smith married twice. His first wife was Leah Goldstein of Yonkers whom he married on February 8, 1927; they had two children, Robert H. Smith and Arlene Smith Kogod (married to Robert P. Kogod). Leah died in 1972. His second wife was Miriam Schuman Uretz Smith.

References

Writings

* * *

External links