Foreign Exchange Student
Richard B. Smith

RICHARD B. SMITH Was Central's first Foreign Exchange Student to spend a semester in a foreign school. He has sufficient control of French that he attended, for the first semester of this school year, the Lycee de Lillebonne as a student in the Seconde Moderne and took the following subjects: French, German, English, algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, art, and physical education. In addition to his school work he studied organ with Monsieur Marcel Languetuit, titulaire of the great organ at Rouen Cathedral. The family of Monsieur Bost were hosts to Richard, the seventeen-year-old daughter, Brigitte, being a A.F.S. Exchange Student to Milwaukee. The family, M. and Mme. Bost and their son, Jerome, 16, and daughter, Jeanne, 12, lived in a handsome old chateau at Lillebonne. Their life was one of culture and refinement. "The chief value," Richard says, "of the Service is that is gives people the chance to live and learn together, thus promoting interhuman, and therefore international, understanding." The talks in assembly and in French Club Richard has given have proved his alertness to the interesting customs and manners of the French and their warm friendliness. [Central Year Book 1959 Pg73]

1959 - Class Photo

Central H.S. Year Book - 1959 (Photo Pg 89, 5th Row., Photo b.) Voted "Best Musician"; Member: Gold Honor Society; Foreign Exchange Student; Student Council; Track; "C" Club; French Club.

Subj: CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, KC - 1959-60 RE-UNION

Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 11:00:03 PM Eastern Standard Time

From: "Richard Birney-Smith"

To: "PAUL SARRETT"

Early in my college career, I started using my full name: Richard Birney Smith. After moving to Canada, the public kept assuming that my name was hyphenated and I finally gave in and stopped correcting people. I have been a Canadian citizen since 1971 and Richard Birney-Smith since 1978.

I attach my current bio which I will also submit (with a Central High - AFS - Trinity College paragraph added) to the reunion people in Shawnee Mission. It is a Word97 file. If you cannot open it, I can re-send it as a text file.

BIOGRAPHY
RICHARD BIRNEY-SMITH has played a prominent role in the Greater Hamilton and Toronto music scene since moving to Dundas in 1967. Born on January 29, 1941, in Detroit, Michigan, he is the son of the late Father Birney W. Smith, Jr. and the late Jetawyn Barbara Solomon. Exhibiting noticeable musical curiosity from a very early age, he became fascinated with the pipe organ at the age of four when attending his father's ordination to the diaconate. He began piano lessons at age six in order to be ready to learn organ when his legs grew long enough to reach the pedalboard.

He received his first organ assignment at the beginning of August in 1951, when the organist of his father's church was unable to find a holiday replacement. He actively worked as a church musician on a Sunday-by-Sunday basis with only brief interruptions from then until the end of August, 1992.

His organ teachers were Dr. Thomas Matthews in Evanston, Illinois; Edna Scotten Billings in Kansas City, Missouri; Marcel Languetuit at Rouen Cathedral in France; and Clarence Watters at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.

He immigrated to Canada in 1965 to become Organist & Master of the Choristers at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Saskatoon. He was Organist-Choirmaster of St. James' Church in Dundas from 1967 until 1976. He was Organist & Director of Music at Melrose Church in Hamilton from 1981 until 1992. In addition to his work as a church musician, he is a concert organist, harpsichordist, conductor, composer and organ consultant.

Richard Birney-Smith has made hundreds of concert and recital appearances in Canada, the United States, England, Scotland, and France. Included among them are performances at Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City; the Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Massachusetts; Trinity Church, Brompton, in London; Queen's College, Oxford; McEwen Hall, Edinburgh; and Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. He has issued three long-playing phonograph records and two compact discs. He has also made numerous appearances on CBC Radio One, CBC Radio Two, and CBC Television as organist, harpsichordist, and conductor.

In 1968, he founded the Te Deum Concert Series in Dundas. This has evolved into the present Te Deum Orchestra and Singers who present an annual six-concert subscription series of mostly baroque music in both Hamilton and Toronto.

Dr. Birney-Smith has played the Roy Thomson Hall organ with the Toronto Symphony. He has appeared four times as organ soloist with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and once as conductor and organ soloist.

His major compositions include The Mass of St. Andrew for congregation and organ; Mal de Pays for seven-part choir, baroque flute, viola da gamba, and harpsichord; Four versets on O filii et filiae for organ; Three versets on Veni Emmanuel for organ; Three Canadian Songs for three-part children's choir; and Suite in A Minor for Harpsichord and Strings. He has also composed several anthems and hymntunes.

As organ consultant, he has advised St. Christopher's Church, Burlington; the Church of the Redeemer in Stoney Creek; St. John's Church, Ancaster; and St. Paul's Church, Westdale. He has also advised his own churches in Dundas and Hamilton.

On November 13, 1992, Richard Birney-Smith was awarded the degree Doctor of Letters by McMaster University "in recognition of his distinctive contribution to the musical life of the Hamilton-Toronto area". Richard Birney-Smith

Central

Would like to Correct or add any information on this years Class at Central High School, K.C., MO. Please, contact me at:

E-Mail: Paul R. Sarrett, Jr. (prsjr@aol.com