Walter James Smith, 76, a postal worker and founding member of the Pars and Birdies Golf Club, a league started by African-American Chicago postal workers in 1946, died of complications related to cardiopulmonary fibrosis on Saturday, May 4, in Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Born in Birmingham, Ala., Mr. Smith moved as a toddler with his family to Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. He graduated in 1943 from Phillips Academy and entered the Army a year later, serving as a bookkeeper and office manager for the engineering division in Japan following World War II. Discharged with the rank of sergeant in 1946, Mr. Smith returned to Chicago and married his high school sweetheart, Dorothy. He earned an associate’s degree in finance from Cortez Peters Business College while working at the Chicago post office. Mr. Smith retired more than 30 years later as a data system management officer in charge of implementing and managing the computer system that accounted for the whereabouts of all mail parcels in the Midwest. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; a son, Walter; a sister, Katherine; and three grandchildren. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in Zion Lutheran Church, 8455 S. Stony Island Ave., Chicago.
