Al Smith Biography

The fascinating life of Dr. Smith began on November 8, 1916 in a small Holland Dutch community in northern New Jersey where the news of the day reported that “Mr. and Mrs. Barney Smith” had become the proud parents of a baby boy who they named Alfred Barney Smith.

Alfred’s early years were filled with loving care from a Father and Mother who loved the Lord. Carrie Smith was a stay at home mother who was able to spend her time encouraging and teaching her son in the three “R’s”, reading, writing, and arithmetic, to which she added the fourth “R”, religion. At an early age Alfred learned the stories of David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, Noah and the Ark and best of all the story of Jesus. Though his mother had never received any extensive musical training she did love to sing. The first song she taught young Alfred was “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so”, soon followed by “Jesus Bids Us Shine”, and of course “America” and “Onward Christian Soldiers” for which he was given a little flag to wave as he marched around the room. These became his favorites. Feeling that music would be one of his most important ingredients in the home, a Symphonic Model phonograph manufactured by Thomas Alva Edison was purchased. With the phonograph came twenty-five records chosen by the company. At the time, little did the young parents realize how much their included records would affect the future of their young son.

Young Mother Smith had always loved the violin and in the record set were two records by a talented violinist named Albert Spaulding, a family member of the famous Spaulding family who manufactured athletic equipment. He played some of the beautiful compositions written by the world-renowned violinist, Fritz Kreisler, such songs as “The Old Refrain”, “Liebesfreud”, “Caprice Viennois”, etc. The young father and mother were thrilled with the recordings and four-year-old Alfred in the months and years ahead would learn to love them too.

We thought these early and interesting details deserved more than just a casual mention. It was these early decisions by his young parents that helped build the foundation and set the direction Alfred would go in the future.

When Alfred was eight and a half years of age his mother began to see that her son was developing an interest in the violin. During this time he rediscovered the old Edison records of Albert Spaulding and began to play them often. Observing this, she decided that it was time to start her son on the violin. She was fortunate in securing a Holland/Dutch immigrant named, Herman De Young, who proved to be a very good and honest teacher. Alfred made wonderful progress, in fact, when he reached the age of eleven his teacher advised his mother that he had taught his pupil all that he could and thought it was time for a new instructor. She found Roderick Meakle a special member of the faculty of the Juliard School of Music, who was also an associate of Leopold Auer, the world renown teacher of such violinists as Yoshua Heifitz, Isaac Stern, and Yehudi Menuhin. Under the teaching of Auer and Meakle, young Alfred made great progress, soon he was performing in concerts in various parts of the east including solos with various symphony orchestras.

At fourteen he was invited to a tent meeting in Hawthorne, New Jersey, where he accepted Christ as Savior. He was thrilled upon hearing the one hundred and fifty people in the tent singing “Saved, Saved, Saved” and “One Day.” That day he fell in love with Gospel music It was a love that never left him.

In 1930, he began playing on radio broadcasts. The station was WKBO, located in Jersey City, New Jersey. The program was called “the Old Fashioned Gospel Hour.” A young fellow by the name of George Beverly Shea was also on the broadcast. In 1933, Al  met Wendell P. Loveless, Director of WMBI, and the radio voice of Moody Bible Institute. In 1934, Alfred enrolled at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, at the invitation of Mr. Loveless. He became a member of the WMBI staff, which more or less prepared him for his future ministry of radio, recording, and publishing of Gospel music.

In 1937, Alfred B. Smith graduated from Moody Bible Institute and immediately began as Minister of Music at The Church of the Open Door in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pastored by Dr. Merrell T. MacPherson. In the fall of 1938 the church loaned him to The Philadelphia School of the Bible – now The Philadelphia College of the Bible.  C.I. Scofield who gave us the Scofield Reference Bible was the founder. Smith was teamed with W. Douglas Roe, a young and successful Pastor in New Jersey. It was during that year that he wrote “For God So Loved the World” after visiting the ninety-four year-old hymn writer  George C. Stebbins. He was beginning an adventure in inspiration that kept him occupied for over sixty years.