Just A Chap Passing Through

William F. Smith was born in New York City and worked in Manhattan most of his life. His parents on both sides were Irish Catholic, he had two sisters and a brother and grew up during the Depression years. He worked from the age of thirteen, his first employment was delivering telegrams for Western Union. As he put it, I never did sports. I always had a job.” Bill left school at eighteen and joined the Air Force, becoming a ball gunner on B-24’s with the 492nd Heavy Bomber Group in England. The war ended, he completed high school and enrolled at Fordham University on the GI-Bill. He studied journalism in night classes, aspiring to be a newspaper columnist, and worked on the waterfront during the day. After leaving the waterfront he took a more genteel job in insurance, married and raised a family of two boys and two girls, living on Long Island. He became a loss adjuster, found himself increasingly interested in art and the impact of damage or theft on underwriters, museums, dealers and collectors. He eventually gave up his other accounts to deal exclusively with art losses.Smith, William F. is the author of 'Just A Chap Passing Through' with ISBN 9781932762570 and ISBN 1932762574.