C. Mark Smith

A native of Tacoma, Washington, C. Mark Smith spent forty years managing economic development organizations at the local, state, and federal level. He is a Fellow Member and Honorary Life Member of the International Economic Development Council and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Washington Governor Gary Locke in 2004.

A self-proclaimed “political junkie,” Smith is most comfortable when writing at the nexus of history, biography, and politics. He spent eight years as a senior-level official in the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations.

He published his first book, Raising Cain, about his childhood mentor, former Washington senator Harry P. Cain, in 2011. His second book, Community Godfather: How Sam Volpentest shaped the history of Hanford and the Tri-Cities, was published in 2013. His third book, In the Wake of Lewis and Clark, was published by the American Queen Steamship Company in 2015.

His latest book, Congressman Doc Hastings: Twenty Years of Turmoil, is a biography of Hastings but also traces the events and causes of our nation’s growing political divide during the twenty years that Hastings served in Congress. The book is meticulously researched and based on more than one hundred fifty hours of interviews with Hastings and more with fifty other individuals, in and out of government. The book was released in May 2018.

Smith is a 1961 graduate of the University of Puget Sound with degrees in history and political science. He served two terms on the UPS Board of Trustees in the mid-1980s, and was awarded the UPS Alumni Association’s Lifetime Professional Achievement Award in 2012.

He and his wife, Elsa, live in Richland, Washington.