Bert E. Smice
- Positions
- Plumber
- Engineer
- Years in President's House
- 1927 – 1952
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Biography
Bert E. Smice was born in Illinois on August 30, 1879.1 Smice worked as a plumber in Illinois and Florida before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1927.2 That year, he started at the White House as a contractor during Calvin Coolidge’s renovation of the Third Floor and roof.
In 1934, Smice was assigned to the White House full-time from the Department of the Interior, rising to the role of chief plumber.3 Smice’s core memories from his service there included renovating Franklin D. Roosevelt’s bathroom to better accommodate the president’s disability and remodeling the South Lawn fountain jets.4 During the Truman Renovation (1948-1952), Smice served as chief building inspector on the project.5
On June 30, 1952, Smice retired from the White House and moved to Dixon, Illinois. He died on June 17, 1975, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Illinois.6
- Bert Eugene Smice in the U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) For the District of Columbia; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147; Box or Roll Number: 063, Ancestry.com.
- Clark Kelly, “Former White House Plumber Recalls Experiences Under Four Presidents,” Dixon Evening Telegraph (Illinois), January 31, 1963, pg. 1, 18.
- Ibid, Bert Eugene Smice in the U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) For the District of Columbia; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147; Box or Roll Number: 063, Ancestry.com.
- Linda Murney, “Bert Smice Reviews His White House Years,” Dixon Evening Telegraph (Illinois), August 9, 1968, pg. 2.
- Report of the Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1952), 108.
- “Daily Appointments of Harry S. Truman,” June 25, 1952, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/calendar/search?page=230; “Bert E. Smice,” Dixon Evening Telegraph (Washington, D.C.), June 17, 1975, pg. 8; “Bert Eugene Smice,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187698497/bert_eugene-smice.
- Birthplace
- Illinois, USA
- Oakwood Cemetery