Eugene David Smith was the vice president for government and public affairs of the U.S. Borax & Chemical Corporation as well as vice president and general manager of Death Valley Hotel Company. Smith was born in 1923 in Glendale, California but moved to Boron in 1933 after his father was hired by Pacific Coast Borax Company. After high school, Smith joined the army as part of the Air Signal Corps in China where he remained throughout the duration of WWII. Upon returning to the U.S. he began working for the U.S. Borax & Chemical Corp in 1941 practicing common labor until he went to the Colorado school of Mines in 1952. After graduating he became a mining engineer for the company and led successful efforts to have the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 make an exception for Quartz Hill molybdenum project and defended mineral resource development in southeast Alaska and the California desert. In this interview, Smith discusses his early childhood, father's job, Boron and Lancaster California, Air Signal Corps, becoming a mining engineer, Quartz Hill Alaska and becoming the vice president of public affairs and government in the early 80s.