Whitney Smith was born on February 26, 1940, and died on November 17, 2016.

He was a professional vexillologist and scholar of flags.

Smith originated the term vexillology, which refers to the scholarly analysis of all aspects of flags.

Whitney was a founder of several vexillology organizations.

He was a Laureate and a Fellow of International Federation of Vexillological Associations.

He worked with Klaes Sierksma to organize the First International Congress of Vexillology (Muiderberg, Netherlands) in 1965.

Together they joined Louis Mühlemann in founding the International League of Vexillologists and were members of its Governing Board on September 5, 1965, and operated until September 3, 1967.

Whitney Smith passed away at 76 years old.