Smith, B. P. (Billy Paul), 1942-

Billy Paul Smith was born in 1942 and educated in segregated black schools in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Texarkana, Texas. He graduated from high school at fifteen and enrolled at Prairie View A&M University, where he trained with the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). He earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and in 1964, his Master’s degrees in chemistry and math. Smith’s math and science background steered him to the United States Army Chemical Corps, where he was quickly selected to join a new team. The team was to develop responses to nuclear weapon accidents and worked under the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the same time, Smith completed the Weapons Ordinance Army course on classified information relating to the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. Smith experienced racism in Las Vegas, Nevada, including residential segregation when he tried to purchase a house in a neighborhood he liked. The Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company, Inc. (REECo) general manager, Ron Keen, made sure his family could live where they wanted. After retiring at 52 years, Smith and a colleague formed an independent instrumentation company which provided and calibrated radiological measurement and detection instruments for the decommissioning and closure of the Rocky Flats nuclear plant in Golden, Colorado.