Attorney General: William F. Smith
William French Smith was born on August 26, 1917, in Wilton, New Hampshire. He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1939 and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1942. Smith served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942–1946, attaining the rank of lieutenant. In 1946, he joined the Los Angeles law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Smith was director of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles from 1963 to 1972 and president of the board of directors of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council from 1975 to 1978. He also served on the U.S. Advisory Commission on International Education and Cultural Affairs, the University of California Board of Regents, the Advisory Council of the Harvard University School of Government, and the Advisory Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University.
Smith was a senior partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher when appointed the 74th Attorney General of the United States by President Ronald Reagan on January 23, 1981, and was sworn in by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. He resigned that office on February 24, 1985, and rejoined his former law firm in Los Angeles. Smith held honorary degrees from Pepperdine University, DePaul University, and the University of San Diego. He was a fellow of the American Bar Foundation as well as a member of the American Law Institute and the American Judicature Society. Smith died on October 29, 1990, in Los Angeles, California.
Robert Bruce Williams was born in 1930 and was one of the most commercially successful portraitists of the twentieth century. He lived and worked for several decades in Washington, D.C., and is best known for his portraits of elected officials, civil and business leaders, athletes, and television personalities, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Bob Hope, and Hubert Humphrey. Williams was presented the National Concours Award in Portraiture in 1980 and taught as featured faculty at the National Artists Seminar. He was an honorary member of both the Metropolitan and American Portrait Societies. It is unknown when Williams' portrait of Attorney General Smith was completed. He died in 2008.