While in the U.S. Army, Wallace Smith was trained as a forward observer, the individual who would sneak into enemy territory and alert his troops of enemy coordinates for artillery assaults.
The bravery and intense focus required for such a task may have helped Mr. Smith in his role later in life as a civil rights leader in Rochester who worked toward social justice, especially in the aftermath of the city s 1964 race riots. He was a fierce warrior, said former Rochester Mayor William Johnson Jr. He could just keep you in place by the way he looked at you,