Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Lucy Shaker

Copyright 2003
International Standard Book Number: 1-929612-49-4
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003105116

This book represents a labor of love for my Father, James J. Smith. He spent more than forty-five years at the Medical College of Wisconsin as Chairman of the Physiology Department and later as Professor Emeritus. When my dad's cancer returned in 1999, he asked the doctors if he had two years left because that whas how long he needed to finish his book.

Dad achieved his goal, passing away in January of 2001—just weeks after completing this effort. It is fitting that so much of his energy in his final weeks was spent finishing "just one more project." To all of us fortunate enough to know him, he was a shining example of inexhaustible determination, honor, scholarship, selflessness, and commitment to live a purposeful life.