William Kennedy Smith

William Kennedy Smith was born on September 4, 1960, in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a member of the Kennedy family, being the younger son of Stephen Edward Smith and Jean Kennedy Smith. His maternal grandparents were Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, making him a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Senator Ted Kennedy. Smith has an elder brother, Stephen Edward Smith Jr., and two adopted sisters, Kym and Amanda Smith.

For his education, Smith attended Salisbury School, a boarding school located in Salisbury, Connecticut. He earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University and completed premedical post-baccalaureate studies at Bryn Mawr College. In 1991, he received his medical degree (M.D.) from Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Smith married Anne Henry, an arts fundraising consultant, on May 12, 2011, at Tilghman Island, Maryland. The couple has three children.

In his professional career, Smith founded Physicians Against Land Mines, an organization based in Chicago that advocates for the abolition of land mines and provides assistance to landmine victims. He also established the Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR) in 1996, an organization focused on disability rehabilitation and social reintegration. As of 2001, he served as an adjunct instructor at Northwestern University Medical School and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

Regarding his career trajectory, Smith considered running for Congress in Illinois during the 2002 elections but ultimately decided not to pursue this path. As of 2011, he was employed at MedRed, a medical communications technology firm based in Washington, D.C. In 2014, he was elected to the Foggy Bottom Advisory Neighborhood Commission in Washington, D.C.

Smith's personal and professional life has been marked by legal proceedings. On December 12, 1991, he was tried and acquitted of charges of sexual assault. The incident allegedly occurred on the evening of March 29, 1991, at Au Bar in Palm Beach, Florida, where Smith was present with his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, and his cousin, Patrick J. Kennedy. According to reports, Smith met Patricia Bowman and other women at the venue. She later claimed that Smith had violently raped her after they went for a walk on the beach. She reported the incident to police, and a rape kit examination confirmed semen presence, along with reports of pain and bruising. During the trial, Smith acknowledged engaging in sex with Bowman but contended it was consensual. The prosecution sought to introduce testimony from three other women alleging earlier incidents of sexual assault by Smith, but the judge excluded this evidence due to perceived dissimilarity. Bowman initially testified with her face obscured, earning the nickname "the Blue Dot Woman," but later revealed her identity publicly. The jury reached a verdict of not guilty in less than 75 minutes.

In 2004, Smith was again involved in legal issues when a former employee of the Center for International Rehabilitation filed a lawsuit alleging sexual assault from an incident in 1999. Smith denied the allegations, describing them as "outrageous," and later resigned from CIR. The case was settled amicably, and the lawsuit was dismissed by the court on January 5, 2005.

William Kennedy Smith's activities demonstrate involvement in landmine advocacy, rehabilitation work, and community service, despite the legal controversies that have been part of his public history.