A leading historian on Hong Kong, Macau and the China coast, the Reverend Carl Thurman Smith, died on Monday in Macau at the age of 90.
Smith, who was given an honorary doctorate by the Inter-University Institute of Macau in 2005, had been the inspiration of virtually every historical work on Hong Kong for decades. His warm, generous and humorous nature and razor-sharp memory will be missed by many.
Born in 1918 in Dayton, Ohio, he took a bachelor's degree from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1940. Three years later he earned a masters in divinity from the Union Theological Seminary in New York and was ordained a minister in the Evangelical and Reformed Church, which is now the United Church of Christ.
After stints as a pastor in New York and Philadelphia, Smith decided in 1960 to become a missionary. After months of Cantonese training, at which he said he was not a good student, he was sent to Hong Kong.
He lectured in theology at the Theological Institute in Tuen Mun, and then between 1962 and 1983 at the Chung Chi Seminary and its successor, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Smith quickly moved into research of the missionary presence in Hong Kong, Macau and China.
