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Early Life and Education

Daniel Smith was born in [Twin Falls, Idaho] in Twin Falls Memorial Hospital at 12 noon, Sunday, 28-Oct 1951. His parents were Bus Smith and Colleen O'Harrow.

His 20 year old father was horrified that his son's head was misshapen after birth. Bus, his Dad was not familiar that this birth "anomaly" is common and Dan's head soon formed a normal shape.

His Family called him 'Danny' until his teen years when he wished to be called 'Dan.' Later when he entered business he preferred 'Daniel' but many family and friends called him 'Dan.' In France many reverted to calling him 'Daniel'

Early Interests

Family and Friends

Daniel and sister Linda (Smith) Waters enjoyed Friday evenings when they spent the night with Grandparents Cap O'Harrow and Grace (Lewis) O'Harrow on their farm south of Twin Falls. 'Helping' Grandpa with the farm chores was a pleasure for all.

Dan enjoyed being with his Uncle David O'Harrow because they both enjoyed games and played for hours.

On his Father's side of the family there were many uncles, aunts and cousins who he enjoyed. Since his Grandmother's family was large, there are many in his extended family.

Daniel and his childhood friend, Stevan Lennan loved to play games such as chess and especially complex tactical war board games. After college they lived in separate states but still played Afrika Korps, the WWII North Africa battle by mail. Their simulated Afrika Korps game lasted longer than the actual battle.

Growing up in the US Western high plains sagebrush deserts, Daniel was fascinated with cowboys both real (his uncles and cousins) and TV Cowboys including, Sky King, GunSmoke, Rawhide, Bonanza, the Lone Ranger, and especially Roy Rogers. Dan enjoyed playing cowboys and Indians with friends.

Family cats were a joy to Daniel beginning with his Grandmother O'Harrow and her barnyard cats. His Mother always had at least one cat including Whitie, Pepper, Sunny, Sossity, Mincey, Merry & Pumpkin. With his wife Géraldine, they adopted in 2017, Capucine a 9 year old Russian Blue that was left with them under the guise of 'cat sitting' ...I will be back... but it was not to be. Just the same, Capucine found her 'furrrever' home with Daniel & Géraldine.

Scouting

Cub Scouts (Cub, Wolf, Bear, Webelos) Boy Scouts (Tenderfoot, Second, First, Star, Life & Eagle) awards from Scout through Eagle Scout (with 21 required merit badges plus 4 additional merit badges), Order of the Arrow, God and Country, Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol Leader, Junior Assistant Scoutmaster and "50-Miler" hiking award, all with Boy Scout Troup 67 of United Methodist Church. Dan loved to be in the outdoors with the scouts especially camping and hiking in the Sawtooth Mountains to the north of Twin Falls.

Boys' State

Daniel applied for and was accepted as a Boys' State delegate, a summer leadership and citizen program for high school juniors. Boys' State was Dan's first experience in politics learning that compromises are at times necessary but do not advance goals or not rewarding to any of the negotiating parties.

Reading was a pleasure to Daniel especially complex novels and book series [Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew], non-fiction, math and science, history, politics, computer science, computer networks, home automation and genealogy

Sports & Health

• Track & Field in Jr & Sr High School including long jump, hurdles and running.
• Skiing was a passion. Dan skied often at Magic Mountain and Sun Valley.
• Rock climbing was a thrilling technical sport with fellow climbers during college years.
• Tennis enthralled Dan from High School to late-life. He took group and private lessons at the Great Valley, PA YMCA and sometimes played tennis as long as three continuous hours with friends.
• Hiking in the Sawtooth Mountains in central Idaho was a particular pleasure where he hiked often with the scouts, family and friends
• Water Sports including Sailing, Swimming, Canoeing, Rafting, Fly Fishing

Education

Daniel was always interested in understanding and solving puzzles. This interest was fundamental to his wish of lifelong learning passion

• Twin Falls Senior High School, Science and Math [1970]
• Idaho State University, BS-Chemistry [1974]
• Montgomery County Community College Computer Science, Landscape Architecture, Short Story Writing
• Villanova University, MS-Computer Science and Mathematics [1980]

After studying subjects of chemistry, mathematics, physics, computer science and more, Daniel often says the most important single thing he learned was 'how to learn.' Later in life he felt he could learn many subjects even with no prior knowledge because he knew how to learn a new subject.

Adult Life

University Studies focused on Chemistry, Math and later Computer Science Politics - As Daniel studied at Universities, he became more progressive drifting away from his conservative origins. Science, health and fitness Music, arts and culture including photography, painting and drawing

Marriages

• Daniel married Karen Marie Lancer for some years then divorced. There were no children.
• Later in life, Daniel met and married Géraldine (Marquès) Smith in France in 2016. They enjoyed world travel and working on technical subjects together as she was a graduate-level engineer and enjoyed technology.

Work

• FMC Corporation Summer employment as manual laborer then quality control chemist testing phosphate ore that produced elemental phosphate and eventually fertilizer, detergents, chemical industry and military products.
• Wyeth Laboratories as quality control chemist of pharmaceutical products
• Johnson & Johnson (McNeil Consumer Products) as research chemist, computer project manager, manager of research computer groups. Dan represented McNeil in the J&J computing group
• Sanofi Pharmaceuticals (aka Sanofi) as project manager of regulated computer systems, clinical computer systems, then coordinator of global health authority audits of clinical computer systems.
  • During work at Sanofi in the US, Daniel took a three-year expatriate contract to work in Paris, France, sold his car and house in Pennsylvania then moved to Paris on 1-Nov-2004
  • At the end of the expatriation contract in 2007, Daniel asked to be converted to a local 'French' employee and so remained in Paris.
  • In 2011, Sanofi offered senior employees an early retirement separation package that Daniel accepted and remained a resident of Paris.

Retirement

After taking the pre-retirement package, Dan took his official French retirement in 2011 continued his adventures in Paris art and culture.

Volunteer Work

Daniel joined WICE - Paris as Program Director of Visual Arts in October 2012. He sponsored the WICE Art Gallery with art displays changing every couple months. He was pleased to exhibit is photography in several WICE Exhibitions. Daniel progressed through WICE as Director of Programs, Member of the Board of Directors and Secretary of the Board. He created and was Director of Technical Operations Department. To create a more social atmosphere, he established WICE Events Department and hosted many social events. Daniel was chair of the Rules and Regulations Committee. Daniel automated financial data flow from WICE on-line course registration system to the accounting system. He continued with accounting and was the organization's Financial Controller. Daniel's WICE volunteer work ended 31-Jul-2019 after nearly 8 years.

Property Management

Initiated by Géraldine, she and Daniel bought several parking places in Parisian underground parking garages for rent. As Géraldine's Mother aged, they began management of her property. Daniel applied his knowledge of accounting to manage properties using double-entry bookkeeping.

Retirement Leisure

In 2021, Daniel & Géraldine bought and restored an Art Deco apartment in Nice, France where they enjoyed the Mediterranean climate, leisurely lifestyle and great cuisine. They loved walking for hours on the Promenade des Anglais along the sea.

Personal Projects

Technology

• Dan enjoyed working with computer Operating Systems, servers, virtual machines and Personal Computer building. He jokes that he is still working on his original computer 'build' since early 1990s by replacing parts around the keyboard. He retains the original 'IBM model K' keyboard (produced in 1990).
• Home Automation: after several installations of home automation systems, Dan focused on Home Assistant and installed two servers, one in Paris and one in Nice.
• Networking Local and Wide Area Networks
• Wiki contributor to Wikipedia, Wikivoyage and Wikitree. Dan is creating a personal Wiki on his website for Parisian tourists.
• Growing orchids in semi-hydroponic culture was a pleasurable discovery although proper care was interrupted with his travels.

French

Dan studied French in High School for three semesters but during University studies switched to German because he thought German was more aligned with Chemistry he was studying. After moving to Rouses Point, NY on the Canadian boarder and listening to French/English radio, he renewed his interest in French. After Daniel started working at Sanofi Pharmaceuticals he began working with French colleagues. He then studied French in earnest. French group and private lessons were available, plus group discussions. The company library had many French books, audio and videos available including French films. Public radio had a French news broadcast. After living together, Danel and Géraldine spoke in a mix of French and English, and something Dan called Franglish, a mix of the two languages.

Genealogy

Daniel became interested in genealogy from his Mother and family members of both his Mother and Father. With WikiTree, he gained the following certifications

• pre-1700 certified, GEDCOM certified,
• Mack Smith and Alta (Webb) Smith, co-Family Historian
• Cap O'Harrow and Grace (Lewis) O'Harrow, co-Family Historian.
• A cousin researched our Great-Grandmother Foster, Leona Foster and found our ancestors reached far back to Clovis 1st, the first King of France and his ancestors.

Lived & Resided

• Twin Falls, Idaho
• Orem, Utah
• Pocatello, Idaho
• Kingston, New York
• Rouses Point New York
• Ambler, Pennsylvania
• Landsdale, Pennsylvania
• Collegeville, Pennsylvania
• Paris, France, 6th, 14th arrondissements, then 11th arrondissement
• Nice, France, part-time between Paris and Nice, France

Travel & Leisure

• Daniel enjoyed good food and wine. In a break from the precision of analytical chemistry he found a freedom of expression in cooking. He discovered many cuisines to be his style including French, Italian, Vietnamese and Mediterranean but always healthy and fresh. He loved to prepare what he called complex / simple dishes using local flavorful ingredients. There were many 'exotic' techniques he enjoyed such as cooking sous-vide, using umami flavors and fast/slow pressure cookers.

Daniel tended to like wines of Burgundy, France, both red and white and always searched for a special bargain. Restaurant meals were a delight and he always searched for good value and casual atmosphere. Daniel submitted scores of restaurant reviews on TripAdvisor as ParisYank.

• Sailing (earning several certificates), Daniel made many significant sailing trips, several of which were multiple-day, open ocean sailing, day and night.

Chesapeake Bay, circumnavigation of New Jersey peninsula, Tampa Bay, FL to/from the Dry Tortugas Islands, Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk to Bermuda. Jupiter Inlet, Florida to Green Turtle Island, Bahamas. He was especially proud to have learned and practiced celestial navigation on multiple 24-hour day, off-shore voyages.

• Scuba Diving Scuba Diving Certificates "Open Water Diving", "Advanced Diving," and "Rescue Diver"), Significant Dives were in the Bahamas (diving with sharks), Dominican Republic, Cozumel and the Red Sea, Egypt where he and his group dived on multiple ship wrecks.
• Travel
  • North America : US, Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, US & British Virgin Island, Costa Rica, St. Lucia, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, Dominican Republic.
  • Europe: England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Monaco, Switzerland, Italy, Vatican City, Romania, Croatia, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Andorra, Malta
  • Asia : Turkey, Qatar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Seychelles Islands
  • Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia
  • South America : Peru, Chile : <bucket list>
  • Oceana: Australia and New Zealand : <bucket list>

Philosophy

Daniel's family and Scouting taught him to have moral standards and to be kind to others and to animals. He was often a perfectionist in trying to do the right thing, the right way. He gained talents of critical thinking and logic. Others may have seen him as too ridged but he thought that was fine also.

References

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