Al Smith IV to be named as Grand Marshal for 2013 New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade

Great-grandson of Al Smith will also host Obama and Romney on October 18th

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Al Smith IV to be named as 2013 Grand Marshal in NYC

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Al Smith IV will be named the 2013 Grand Marshal of the St.Patrick’s Day parade in New York this week, IrishCentral has learned. He is the great grandson of Al Smith, the first major Catholic candidate for president when he ran in 1928 and a major fundraiser for philanthropic causes. He is a former senior Wall Street executive who serves on several boards.

Smith will host the annual Al Smith dinner in New York which will be attended by both President Obama and Mitt Romney on October 18th.

He will lead an estimated 150,000 marchers up Fifth Avenue on March 17th next year, one of the highest honors in the Irish American community.

Smith's work on behalf of charities in New York and Connecticut is extensive. In addition to his work with the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, he is a founding member and serves as Chairman of the Ireland Chamber of Commerce of the USA.

He served on the board of Saint Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan since 1986. Smith and other members of the Saint Vincent's board were criticized by community leaders in 2010 in connection with the closure and bankruptcy of Saint Vincent's.

Smith is the Chairman of Hackers for Hope, an organization he co-founded in 1988 to raise money for cancer research and treatment. Since its first "tournament" in 1988, Hackers for Hope has donated a total of more than $8,000,000 to Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center's Comprehensive Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and other organizations committed to finding a cure for and treating cancer.

Smith has served as president of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York, 2005–2007 and he is a Knight of Malta.

Smith's service and commitment to Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers was rooted in his family history and extended back 70 years when his great-grandfather was involved in St. Vincent's. In his role as Chairman, Smith's focus was on building a new state of the art hospital which would continue to tackle the healthcare needs of the New York Community. The hospital filed for bankruptcy and closed in the spring of 2010.

Smith is married to Nan Moore Smith. They have two children, Alfred E. Smith V and Catherine Smith Totero, and two grandchildren. 

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