Smith, Robert C., 1932- : Born in St. Thomas (Ontario) in 1932, Robert C. Smith undertook undergraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario in 1950, and attended graduate school at McGill University in 1954, where he received his Ph.D. degree in physics in 1960. Lecturer and Professor at the University of Ottawa since 1958, he became Chairman of the Department of Physics in 1986. He was also Secretary of the Faculty of Science and Engineering (1978-1986) and member of the University Senate (1978-1986). He retired in 1992.
When he was about eight years old, he became interested in philately. Collecting international and Canadian stamps at an early age, he became interested in Swiss stamps as the result of contact with a student from Switzerland during his academic years at McGill University. Always attentive to the local history of the St. Thomas area, he began to search seriously for covers from Elgin and Norfolk Counties (Ontario) in 1978, after having looked at a list of covers from a dealer. The collection has won silver medals in national shows.
He was also fascinated by the postmarks of Ontario as well as by Canada's barrel postmarks used from 1955 to 1962, his collection for which he won a silver medal in competition. With respect to Ontario postmarks, he made a list of post offices, which was published in 1988 in two volumes as Ontario Post Offices. He became involved in the study of the postal history of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Siberia during the period 1918 to 1921. This time, Dr. Smith won three medals for his collection at different competitions.
Dr. Smith is a member of many philatelic societies. He joined the Ottawa Philatelic Society in 1960, the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada in 1977, the British North American Philatelic Society in 1978, and the Philatelic Specialists Society of Canada in 1986. However, throughout much of this period, he was devoting most of his time to the Postal History Society of Canada which he joined in 1978. He served as Vice-President of this society from 1980 to 1984; as President from 1984 to 1988; and Vice-President again from 1988 to the present. He was editor of the quarterly PHSC Journal from 1981 to 1985. After 1985, he served as assistant editor of the Journal before taking the reins as editor once more in 1995.
Dr. Smith has written over one hundred articles, editorials, booklets, and books. He is well known for his contribution to the postal history of Canada as the result of the publication of Ontario Post Offices and his various articles on post offices and postmarks.
