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Show V i.A jJ-^2 Sunday, March 22,1970 THE WASHINGTON POST „.. , -Tp^^,.*, Dr. Myron Bement Smith is shown (left) at work in his Mahmoud Foroughi of Iran in 1964, Iran's highest deco- Islamic archives. At right he receives, from Ambassador ration for scholarly achievement. Near East Scholar Myron S* Myron Bement Smith, 73, a Near East architecture historian and scholar, died yesterday at the Washington Hospital Center after a brief illness. Born in Newark Valley, N.Y., Dr. Smith received a B.F.A. degree and a M.F.A degree in architecture from Yale University, an M.A. degree in fine arts history from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Islamic archeology from John Hopkins University. A recognized expert on Islamic and Iranian architecture ana history, Dr. Smith was awarded Iran's highest decoration for s c h o l a r ly achievement, the Order of Homayoun Collier. Under the auspices of the State D e p a r t m e n t , Dr. Smith made two extended journeys to lecture on Islamic architecture at 22 universities in 10 countries. His articles and photographs dealing with Near and Far Eastern , culture have appeared in more than 50 publications, with the) most famous being a series of monographs, entitled, "Materials for a Corpus for Early Islamic Architecture." Dr. Smith devoted more than 30 years to developing ,an Islamic archives of photographic documents numbering almost 83,000 items, many of which are on display at the Library of Congress. In a 1965 interview for Potomac magazine in The Washington Post, Dr. Smith stressed that there was not enough emphasis on the visual aspects of the Near East such as the . "rhythmic arcades of Alhambra of Granada, the brutally primitive mosaics in the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem and the sweetly pregnant domes of the Taj Mahal." Dr. Smith was a staff member of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and for 29 years was honorary consultant to the Library of Congress on Islamic archeology and Near Eastern history. > At various points in his career, he taught at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Utah. He also received research fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. Throughout his - life, Dr. Smith worked to promote Near Eastern programs in American universities and American - sponsored institutes in the Near East. At the time of his death, he was working on a book entitled, " I r a n i a n Arches and Vaulted Architecture." H * is survived by his wife, Katherine, of the home, 1789 Lanier P^. N W , and a brother, Ellis S.>of Escondido, Cal. |
