William Kennedy Smith was born on September 4, 1960 in Brighton, Massachusetts. Smith spent the first years of his life in Washington D.C., while his father worked at the Pentagon during the Kennedy Administration. Later, the family returned to New York, where Smith spent most of his childhood.
The incident began on the evening of Good Friday, March 29, 1991, when Smith, then 30 years old, was in a bar (named Au Bar) in Palm Beach, Florida, with his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, and his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy. Smith met Patricia Bowman, a 29-year-old woman and another young woman at the bar. The five then went to a nearby house owned by the Kennedy family. Smith and the 29-year-old woman walked along the beach. The woman alleged that Smith raped her; Smith testified that they had consensual sex. Although three women were willing to testify that Smith had sexually assaulted them in incidents in the 1980s that were not reported to the police, their testimony was excluded. Smith was acquitted of all charges.
In 1992, after receiving his M.D. from Georgetown, Smith went to work in Somalia with the International Medical Corps. Smith later completed orthopedic programs in Bosnia, Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, where he worked as a physician in cooperation with the International Medical Corps and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In 1996, Dr. Smith founded Physicians Against Land Mines (PALM). The goal of PALM was to permanently ban the sale and use of antipersonnel and land mines. PALM served as an active partner alongside the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), and in 1997, the ICBL and its partners were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In November 1998, PALM expanded its organizational scope and mission, launching the Chicago-based Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR) that absorbed landmine awareness and advocacy as one of its core programs. The CIR also engaged in educational initiatives and the development of prosthetics Technology to improve rehabilitation care for amputees in war-torn areas and in developing countries. The CIR won funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) to operate a Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Improved Technology Access for Landmine Survivors that was designated a national center of excellence in rehabilitation engineering. By engineering and disseminating new technologies in prosthetics and orthotics, the RERC was able to greatly improve access to mobility aids for landmine survivors and other amputees.
In 2001, under Smith's leadership, the CIR developed one of the world's first distance learning program in prosthetics, orthotics and amputee care. Harnessing the power of the Internet, the CIR was able to deliver medical education to workers in clinics and hospitals in some of the poorest regions in the world. Using several different kinds of educational materials, including texts, electronic interactive media and face-to-face workshops, courses have been taught in six countries to over 70 students from 30 rehabilitation centers.
In 2003, under Smith’s direction, CIR created the International Disability Rights Monitor (IDRM) -- an international grassroots research project designed to document and assess the status of persons with disabilities worldwide in order to promote their full inclusion and participation in society, as well as to advance the use of international humanitarian and disability law to ensure that their rights are respected and enforced. Since its inception, the IDRM has released a series of reports that draw a comparative analysis of living conditions, legal protections, education, employment, accessibility, health and housing services for people with disabilities.
In addition to his humanitarian and medical work, Smith founded Medred, a medical software firm, in 2004.
Later in 2005, Smith settled with another employee who accused him of sexual harassment.
In 2008, CIR introduced its newest initiative, iCons in Medicine. iCons in Medicine is a global telehealth and humanitarian Internet Medicine volunteer alliance that connects health care providers in remote and medically underserved areas with a network of specialty physician volunteers who provide clinical support.
Smith married Anne Henry, an arts fundraising consultant, on May 12, 2011 at Tilghman Island, Maryland.
They have two children, India Rose B.2012 & Stephen II B. 2013
In 2014, Smith was elected to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission in Washington D.C.
