Art was born March 10, 1931 at Hudson City Hospital, now Columbia Memorial Hospital. His mother was Fabiola Gerard and his father James G. Smith. Fabiola’s family of 12 or 13 children emigrated from Canada to Laconia, New Hampshire. The family then moved to Hudson. Art’s father worked in the North Woods of New Hampshire in winter logging and at The Brickyards in Hudson during the summer. Fabiola quit high school at 14 or 16. She then worked at a sewing machine in Thermo Mills that made woolen clothing and underwear.
Art’s father and his father’s father were born in Hudson, but his great great grandfather was from Ireland. His name was William Smith and his wife was Margaret Hallora, one was Catholic and the other Protestant! His grandfather worked as a bartender at many of the many hotels in Hudson. Art’s father worked for Gifford-Wood Company as chief electrician and maintenance foreman for 45 years. Previously, he worked at Atlas Cement Company on the electrical gang. The foreman of the electrical gang took several boys under his wing, including Art’s father, to teach them the electrical trade. Later on he was hired at Gifford-Wood as an electrician to convert all their machinery to electric motor driven. Gifford-Wood was a big machine shop with metal working machinery, lathes, large cutters, a forge, ice-making machinery, and assembly.
All machines ran off a Jack Staff, which is a shaft that runs along the whole length of the machine shop with pulleys. Each pulley was a different length and ran a different machine at different speeds. This was all run by a steam engine, which is what Gifford-Wood wanted to convert to electricity.