J. Albert Smith

J. Albert Smith, a native of New Hamburg, received his public and secondary school education in Kitchener before joining Mutual Life Assurance Company and later Canada Cement Company Limited. He served Kitchener as alderman eight times and was mayor from 1935 to 1937. He was elected president of the Ontario Mayors’ Association and was on the executive of the Dominion Mayors’ Association. He was a member of the Kitchener Water Commission and the Public Utilities Commission. A past president of the Kitchener Horticultural Society and the developer of Rockway Gardens through his Work-for-Relief Plan, he was president of the Ontario Horticultural Association in 1931. He was elected to the provincial legislature in 1937 and was appointed commissioner of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. He received the King George Coronation Medal (1937), the OHA Silver Medal (1967) and the Kitchener Medal (1971).