William H. Smith, 88, artist, writer and ad executive

William H. Smith, 88, of Bristol Borough, a painter, sculptor, and advertising professional, died of heart failure March 20 at Silver Lake Center, a nursing home in Bristol.

Mr. Smith first gained recognition when, as a teenager, he painted a series of murals on African American history at Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, from which he graduated in 1939.

His daughter, Claire, a former sports columnist for The Inquirer and the New York Times, said his paintings had been exhibited at the U.S. embassy in Oman, the Smithsonian Institution, and the University of Pennsylvania.

He worked in acrylic, oil, pastel, pencil and lithograph, his daughter said, but he wasn't confined to the easel.

"He was a modern-day griot," she said, "an African storyteller, historian and entertainer."

His sculpture of Harriet Tubman, commissioned by the African American Historical and Cultural Society of Bucks County, stands in Bristol Lions Park.

Born in Sharptown, Md., Mr. Smith earned a scholarship to what is now the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He received his bachelor's degree in 1943.

Deferred from military service during World War II because of a childhood injury, he worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, then taught English and art in Baltimore public high schools.

In the 1950s, his son Hawthorne said, Mr. Smith returned to Philadelphia and became an advertising executive until he opened his own firm in the late 1960s, William H. Smith Advertising in Doylestown.

He freelanced illustrations and columns for the Baltimore Afro-American, the Baltimore Sun, and The Inquirer, his daughter said, and as a guest columnist "he wrote prolifically in his second career for the Bucks County Courier Times after he turned 70."

Besides his son and daughter, Mr. Smith is survived by sons William Jr. and Barton; six grandchildren; a sister; a brother; and several nieces and nephews. His wife of 57 years, Bernice, died in 2006.

Viewings are set for 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Wade Funeral Home, 1002 Radcliffe St., Bristol, and at 8:30 a.m. there Thursday; a Mass of Christian Burial will be said at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Mark Roman Catholic Church, 1025 Radcliffe St., Bristol. Burial is to be in the church cemetery.