Neal E. Smith

Des Moines, Iowa

Neal E. Smith is one of Iowa’s most distinguished, respected and longest-serving members of the United States Congress. His 36-year career in Congress began in 1959 as the Representative for the Iowa 5th District, and concluded in 1995 as the Representative for the Iowa 4th District.

Smith’s landmark achievements as a congressman span a wide range of areas, but he was especially effective as a champion for agriculture, small business and the environment. Smith was the author of legislation establishing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Federal Meat, Poultry and Egg Inspection Acts; Small Business Development Centers; and Farmer-Owned Grain Reserve. He sponsored legislation to construct the Red Rock, Saylorville, Big Creek, Earlham and Rathbun dams, and to create the Des Moines River Greenbelt, Red Rock Watershed Conservation District and the Neal E. Smith National Wildlife Refuge, later named in his honor.

In the mid-1980s, with Iowa mired in a severe economic recession, Smith focused his efforts on strengthening Iowa’s economy. He partnered with Iowa State University in an aggressive effort to obtain federal funds to help jump-start, diversify and strengthen the economy by capitalizing on Iowa State’s considerable research enterprise and its strengths in the agricultural sciences and materials sciences. He helped Iowa State obtain more than $200 million in appropriations from 1986 to 1991 to provide new facilities, expand research programs in several key areas and develop programs to convert the results of the university’s research into viable economic ventures.

Smith’s support led to the creation of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology, which today is a model interdisciplinary consortium of research; development and technology transfer centers; as well as the Center for Crops Utilization Research, Center for Designing Foods to Improve Nutrition, Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute and National Soil Tilth Laboratory. In the 1970s, he also helped secure federal funds for Iowa State’s new College of Veterinary Medicine.

A native of Hedrick, Iowa, Smith attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, and Syracuse University, and earned the JD from Drake University in 1950. He practiced law in Des Moines before entering politics, and he resumed his legal practice in Des Moines when he retired from Congress. Smith is a highly decorated veteran of World War II. He and his wife, Beatrix, have two children, Douglas and Sharon. He is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.