Albert Keith Smiley

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/15/nyregion/a-keith-smiley-91-execut...

A. Keith Smiley, 91, Executive Of Resort and Preservationist By ERIC PACE Published: December 15, 2001

A. Keith Smiley, a resort executive and environmentalist who helped protect thousands of acres of scenic landscape in Ulster County, N.Y. as a nature preserve, died on Dec. 6 in Goshen, N.Y.

He was 91.

He was a longtime resident of Mohonk Mountain House, a 251-room resort in the Shawangunk Mountains near New Paltz in Ulster County. For a decade, he was president of the resort, which overlooks Lake Mohonk.

Mr. Smiley's family acquired extensive landholdings in Ulster County in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

By mid-1971, he and his brother, Dan, had sold, for a modest price, several thousand acres of mountainous landscape to a trust, the Mohonk Trust, which they had organized. The land was part of the Northern Shawangunk Mountains, which extend from Kingston, N.Y., to Ellenville, N.Y.

The brothers, both Quakers, said they were following the tenets of their faith by taking unusual measures to make sure that the land would not be exploited.

The tract consists now of more than 6,400 acres. It is operated as a nature preserve on a nonprofit basis by the Mohonk Preserve, and it is New York State's largest member- and visitor-supported nature preserve.

Open to the public 365 days a year, it is a popular site for hikers. It also accomodates horseback riers, mountain bikers, cross-country skiers, road runners and rock climbers. It has more than 100 miles of carriage roads and trails and more than 1,000 climbing routes.

The preserve also contains endangered and rare flora and fauna and is the site of scientific research and of educational programs.

From 1969 to 1999, A. Keith Smiley was on the board of directors of Smiley Brothers, which owns and operates Mohonk Mountain House. In 1980, he founded Mohonk Consultations, a nonprofit environmental organization based at the resort that sponsors lectures and gives awards.

Albert Keith Smiley was born in upstate New York and grew up near Lake Mohonk. He received a bachelor's degree from Haverford College in Pennsylvania and then was an executive of Mohonk Mountain House for four decades.

His survivors include his wife of 61 years, the former Ruth Happel; a daughter, Sandra Smiley; a son, Albert; three grandsons; and three great-grandchildren. Dan Smiley died in 1989.