After receiving an Associate of Science from Penn Hall Junior College in 1965, Sheila Robertson Smith visited the employment office at Duke University in Durham, NC, where she got a job in their medical center. Serving as a hematology technician from 1966 to 1972, she soon transferred to North Arundel Hospital in Glen Burnie, MD, where she served in the same capacity from 1972 to 1973. For the following two decades, she was a hematology technician at the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, MD, retiring from her role in 1993. Among the notable moments of her career, Ms. Smith is most proud of identifying a newly discovered type of leukemia called hairy cell leukemia. After receiving a sample of a blood slide from a colleague, she later recognized the similarities on another slide from a different patient. She consulted with the patient’s doctor who also recognized the similarities, and he complimented her on her findings.
Alongside her primary endeavors, Ms. Smith sat on the board of directors of the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco for two decades. In light of her contributions to her community, she received several accolades and honors. In 2007, she received the Charles
County Historic Trust Preservation Award, as well as the Mrs. Frank J. Fletcher Award from the Charles County Garden Club in 2007 and 2016. She has also been featured in various publications related to the Port Tobacco Village and Courthouse, including “The Road to Religion” by Matthew H. Brown. She has also been highlighted in several Who’s
Who publications and received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Ms. Smith’s hobbies include gardening, traveling, and doing needlepoint, for which she has won several Best in Show Awards and Blue Ribbons.
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