American botanist at Missouri Botanical Garden. Smith was assistant curator in the Garden's Research Division. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Smith's involvement in Latin American botany began during years of Peace Corps work in Guatemala. Following this he gained his PhD in botany at Iowa State University before joining the staff of Missouri Botanical Garden in 1989. Prior to this he had spent 1982-1986 carrying out fieldwork in Peru, where he developed a surveying project in the Huascarán National Park. He was a research associate at Missouri Botanical Garden during this time, collaborating on its Flora of Peru project. In 1990 he initiated the Guía de árboles de Bolivia project and in early 1990 relocated to La Paz to direct the project surveying and inventorying the tree flora of the Serriania de Pilón Lajas, in collaboration with the National Herbarium of Bolivia. He died there in 1991. The species Centropogon david-smithii Lammers is named in his honour.

Sources:
Anon., 1991, "In memoriam: David N. Smith 1945-1991", Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin, 79(3): 20
T.G. Killeen, E. García, S.G. Beck (eds), 1993, Guía de árboles de Bolivia
T.G. Lammers, 1998, "Review of the Neotropical Endemics Burmeistera, Centropogon, and Siphocampylus", Brittonia, 50(2): 255
V.I. Sánchez, 1992, "A la memoria de David N. Smith", Memorias del Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 21: 1-4.