I first met Donald Smith in the fall of 2003. It was on a boat tour of Charleston during a Cato Institute retreat in the southern city. Don was one of Cato's foremost financial supporters, and I was a newly hired fundraiser for the libertarian think tank.
Though there were all manner of prominent professional types on the boat, not to mention top policy scholars, Don took the time to get to know me. And that's very much the point about this incredibly generous supporter of the global liberty and free market movement: he treated everyone around him exceedingly well. Though he could have easily and understandably moved about in distant fashion in keeping with immense stature earned through his brilliance as an investor, Don made a point of getting to know the people – high and low – who were part of the organizations he so generously supported.
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