Martin Henry Smith, the son of Mamie Mae and Charles Earnest Smith, grew up in Gainesville where generations of his family lived. Always knowing that he wanted to be a doctor, he studied at Emory at Oxford and then Emory University to earn his medical degree in 1945. His medical school classmates, having studied together during the war years, remained a special circle of friends throughout his life. After two years of military service, he completed three medical residencies: a fellowship in Infectious Disease at Grady Hospital; a pediatric residency at Henrietta Egleston Hospital in Atlanta, and a second pediatric residency at Childrenâ
