Charles Smart, a prominent Salt Lake physician and pioneer in computerizing cancer research and early detection, died Saturday, Jan. 28, 2005, at age 79.
Dr. Smart was born in 1926 in Ogden. He served in the Army in World War II and then served a two-year LDS mission in the Northwestern States.
While in medical school at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia he married Dorotha Sharp in 1952.
During his medical career, Dr. Smart served as a physician at University of California Los Angeles, University of Utah and as chief of surgery at LDS Hospital for 10 years.
He founded the Utah Cancer Registry, a central cancer registry that has served the state of Utah for more than 35 years, and was president of the Utah Chapter of the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Smart was well-known for his work in establishing computerized cancer research throughout the country and for establishing early detection guidelines for the disease with the National Cancer Institute and the American College of Surgeons.
As head of the Early Detection Branch of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Smart used his experience in oncology and computer programming to aid the International Executive Service Corps.
Through the IESC, he assisted organizations in Ecuador and Hungary in updating cancer prevention and treatment programs. In Ecuador, he enabled a hospital in Guayaquil to create a registry system like the one he had developed in the United States allowing doctors access to data on cancer treatment.
Dr. Smart was president of the Utah Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, a branch chief at the National Cancer Institute and chairman of the Cancer Society Breast Cancer Task Force.
He received the 1996 David Rockefeller Spirit of Service Award and was among the seven nominated for the Frank Pace Award, the highest prize of the International Executive Service Corps.
"He saved lives and was a great doctor to thousands of people but saved more untold lives through his programs in mammography and computer research to help save people through early detection," said son Tom Smart, a photographer at the Deseret Morning News.
After retirement in 1999, Dr. Smart and his wife served an 18-month LDS mission in Moscow, Russia.
A viewing will be held Thursday at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. His funeral is at noon Friday at the Arlington Hills Ward building at 1300 Fairfax Road in Salt Lake City.