{"id":52,"date":"2017-04-07T23:03:41","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T23:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkerranch.com\/PRFT\/?page_id=52"},"modified":"2019-07-10T00:03:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T00:03:27","slug":"richard-palmer-smart","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/prft.org\/richard-palmer-smart\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Palmer Smart"},"content":{"rendered":"
In 1913, Richard Palmer Smart was born to John Palmer Parker\u2019s great-granddaughter Thelma Parker and her husband Henry Gaillard Smart. In 1914, young Smart\u2019s parents died, leaving him to become the sole heir of the Parker fortune. In 1899, Alfred Wellington Carter, a respected Honolulu businessman and judge, had been hired by one of Parker\u2019s relatives to manage the ranch. Carter took young Smart under his wing and showed him the ropes of Parker Ranch.<\/p>\n
Over the next two decades the ranch continued to grow, at one point passing the half-million-acre mark, with a purebred herd of 30,000 Herefords. With Carter in firm control of the ranch, Smart was able to pursue his other love: a career on stage.<\/p>\n
For nearly 30 years, Smart performed on Broadway and in top cabarets in the U.S. and abroad. He headlined such clubs as the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles , the Monte Carlo in New York and the Lido in Paris . He starred opposite such actresses as Eve Arden and Carol Channing. He eventually married actress Patricia Havens-Monteagle, and the couple had two sons. All the while, Smart kept in close contact with the ranch, and when Carter died in 1949, Smart moved back to Parker Ranch to stay.<\/p>\n
Smart began improvements to Parker Ranch. He restructured and expanded much of the cattle breeding and feeding procedures. He improved the ranch headquarters and built the Parker Ranch Visitor Center with its museum, restaurant and saddle shop. He leased land to Laurance Rockefeller, who was the catalyst to resort development along the Kona-Kohala Coast . He instituted programs to benefit ranch employees in education, health care and culture. And he left his sophisticated, artistic mark on Parker Ranch, adorning his home, called Puuopelu , with the exquisite art and furniture pieces he had collected during his worldly travels.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]