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Harold Smith Cultural Series

About the Harold Smith Cultural Series

The Harold Smith Cultural Series was established in 1998 through the estate of Harold Smith – a gift given to the Butler Foundation. Smith graduated from El Dorado High School in 1039 and then El Dorado Junior College (now Butler Community College) before attending Northwestern University in Chicago. Upon graduation, he returned to El Dorado and worked at the family business S&H Banking, located downtown on south Main Street where Walnut River Brewery is today. When they closed the business, Mr. Smith went to work as an accountant at Beech in Wichita. He lived most of his life in a house on the 300 block of north Washington Street in the house his parents built. Mr. Smith’s vision was to create free, unique cultural opportunities for Butler County residents they may not otherwise experience.

Past Harold Smith Cultural Series Presentations

2022 - David Grann: Journalist and author, "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI"
2022 - Mark McCormick :: Journalist and author, "Some Were Paupers, Some Were Kings"
2020 - Galen Abdur-Razzaq :: Musical program "Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement" 
2018 - Jeannette Walls :: Author of "The Glass Castle"
2016 - Fabien Cousteau :: Conservationist and grandson of Jacques Cousteau
2014 - Michael Uslan :: Producer of The Batman films
2012 - Warren Brown :: Entrepreneur and Founder of CakeLove
2008 - Alan Mulally :: Former CEO of Ford Motors
2001 - Barbara Bush :: Former First Lady

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