Albert P. Smith, Jr

Recipient of Leadership Kentucky’s

2007 Flame of Excellence Award

Born in Sarasota, Florida and raised in Tennessee, Kentucky gained an astute journalist with an unwavering search for truth when Albert P. Smith, Jr., came to Russellville in 1958 to edit the Russellville News Democrat. The News Democrat became part of a chain of weeklies which he organized and headed until 1985. Al’s work in Russellville, freelance efforts for The Courier Journal, and Comment on Kentucky, to mention a few, have earned him the title of “Kentucky’s most engaging newsman.”

The 2007 Flame of Excellence Award was presented to Al Smith, Founding Board Member, at Leadership Kentucky’s 6th Annual Executive Forum & Luncheon, December 6, 2007, in Lexington. The mission of Leadership Kentucky is the identification and development of leadership resources to create a greater Kentucky.

O. Leonard Press, founder of Kentucky Educational Television, met with then-president of the Kentucky Press Association, Al Smith, to find a journalist to host a new public affairs program. Since its inception 33 years ago, Al Smith has had an extremely impressive run as host of Comment on Kentucky - longer than any other public affairs program moderator in the Public Broadcast System. Since 1974 he and a panel of fellow journalists from across Kentucky have provided audiences with an informed and diverse perspective on business, education, and politics. The show quickly became a weekly favorite among Kentucky’s movers and shakers.

In addition to Al’s successes in journalism, he has served the citizens of the Commonwealth in other ways over the years. He served for two years under Presidents Carter and Reagan as federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. Al was a founding Board member and past chairman of Leadership Kentucky and has been chairman or a leader in other statewide civic and educational groups including the Kentucky Press Association, the Shakertown Roundtable, Governor’s Scholars, Forward in the Fifth, Council on Higher Education, the state Arts and Oral History Commissions, and the Prichard Committee for Educational Excellence.

He is a recent recipient of the state rural electric co-ops’ Distinguished Rural Kentuckian Award, the Vic Hellard Award for public service from the Legislative Research Commission’s Long Term Policy Research Center, and the Kentucky Press Association’s Lewis Owen Award for Community Service, presented by the Lexington Herald-Leader. Al has received honorary doctoral degrees from five Kentucky universities and colleges, and the state’s annual Al Smith Fellowships honor his support of community arts programs.

Al and his wife, Martha Helen, reside in Lexington. Although the lights in KET’s studios went dark on November 16th, Al Smith will never really retire.