Daniel Smiley, naturalist and ecosystem ecologist, resort owner and operator, spent nearly his
entire life at the Lake Mohonk resort in New Paltz, New York, where he was born March 25, 1907. He was a grandnephew of Albert K. Smiley, who founded Mohonk Mountain House in 1869. Like others in the Smiley family, Daniel became totally engrossed in the business. As a youth, he was involved in sign painting, insect control, flower garden, and pantry. After graduating from Haverford College (Pa.) in 1930 he was responsible, either successively or concurrently, for the controller's office, engineering and maintenance, farms, food service, forestry, grounds and park, surveying,photography, and recreation. In 1953 he became a member of Smiley Brothers Partnership, operator of Lake Mohonk Mountain House and the 7,500-acre estate. Later, he and his brother, A. Keith Smiley, Jr., directed the resort operation for about five years. In 1969 the partnership was superseded by Smiley Brothers Inc. Daniel Smiley served on the board of directors from its inception until his death. In 1963 The Mohonk Trust was established, a charitable trust, to administer 5,000 acres of woodlands, fields, and crags bought gradually from Smiley Brothers, Inc. for purposes of conservation, recreation, scientific study, and inspiration. Since 1980 this organization has been known as Mohonk Preserve. Daniel Smiley was its first administrator. Central to all his interests was the concept of stewardship of the earth. His questions, observations, and writings all focus on the notion of understanding more, in a holistic sense, about the earth on which we live, in order that we may be better stewards of a place entrusted to us by our ancestors for passage to our descendants. Dan Smiley was a member of the Haverford Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.