Dr. Richard J. Smith is Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin, Madison and recipient of a Distinguished Teaching Award from that university. His major emphases of study were the development of reading comprehension and the development of positive attitudes toward reading. His research and classroom practice determined that reading can be a springboard to higher-level thinking behaviors that increase reading pleasure. Professor Smith is author or co-author of five college textbooks on the teaching of reading and numerous instructional materials for the development of reading as a thinking process. In addition, he has published more than fifty articles in professional journals for teachers of reading and reading researchers. His professional career included classroom teaching, Director for Reading Development for the Madison, Wisconsin Schools and consultant to school districts at the national level.

Since his retirement in 1990, Professor Smith has written numerous short stories and published two books, Life After Eighty and Once Upon a Christmas. The prose and poetry in this book were written during the four years he has resided in Bradenton, Florida Westminster Retirement Community.