Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Biographical Note
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1908, Feb. 20 | Born, New York, N.Y. "Kingsbury Smith" on birth certificate; "Joseph Kingsbury Smith" on baptismal certificate; name legally changed to "Joseph Kingsbury-Smith" in 1958 |
| 1924 | Hired as a copyboy in New York City for International News Service (INS), a Hearst organization; promoted to cub reporter |
| 1927 | Assigned to the INS London Bureau |
| 1931 | Transferred to the Washington Bureau, INS State Department correspondent |
| 1936-1944 | Bureau chief, INS, London, England |
| 1938 | Severly injured in London in a military jeep accident; hospitalized for two years but kept on reduced payroll by INS until able to return to work in 1940. |
| 1940 | Married Ruth Eileen King (died 2004) |
| 1941 | Received the George R. Holmes Memorial and the National Headliners Club awards |
| 1944-1955 | European general manager, INS; moved office from London, England, to Paris, France, in 1946 |
| 1946 | Chosen by lottery to be the only American correspondent to witness the execution of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg War Crime Trials |
| 1949 | His exclusive exchange of correspondence with Josef Stalin became world news and was credited with leading to the lifting of the Berlin Blockade; received the George R. Homes award |
| 1950 | George Polk Memorial Award |
| 1955 | Traveled with William Randolph Hearst, Jr., editor-in-chief of Hearst newspapers, and Frank Conniff, Hearst's editorial assistant, to Moscow for a series of interviews with Soviet leaders |
| 1955-1958 | Vice president and general manager of INS, New York; directed the consolidation of INS with United Press Association to become United Press International |
| 1955-1996 | Member, Board of Directors, Hearst Corp. |
| 1956 | Awarded Pulitzer Prize along with William Randolf Hearst, Jr., and Frank Conniff for the Moscow interviews and "distinguished reporting of international affairs" |
| 1959-1966 | Publisher, New York Journal-American |
| 1960-1996 | Trustee, Hearst Family Trust and the Hearst foundations |
| 1966-1975 | European director of the Hearst Corp. and chief foreign writer of the Hearst Newspapers and King Features Syndicate, headquartered in Paris, France, 1966-1968, Rome, Italy, 1968-1975; simultaneously named a vice president of the Hearst Corp., 1966 |
| 1976-1990s | Appointed national editor of Hearst Newspapers and senior Washington representative of Hearst Newspapers while continuing to serve on the board of directors and the Hearst Family Trust |
| 1992 | Inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists' Hall of Fame |
| 1996 | Retired |
| 1999, Feb. 3 | Died, Leesberg, Va. |